Based in Paris, Lise (Lightning Stock Exchange) has become the first firm in Europe to receive authorization for a fully tokenized equity exchange, the company announced on Thursday.
The exchange, which focuses on the SME IPO market in France, obtained a DLT TSS license from the ACPR, France’s financial regulator, under the EU’s Distributed Ledger Technology Pilot Regime, as stated in a press release.
This authorization, created with contributions from the Banque de France, ESMA, AMF, and the European Central Bank, permits Lise to function as both a Multilateral Trading Facility (MTF) and a Central Securities Depository (CSD) within a single digital ecosystem.
Lise’s shareholders include CACEIS (part of the Crédit Agricole Group), BNP Paribas, and Bpifrance. The tokenization-friendly exchange aims to serve French companies with market values under €500 million ($582m), targeting at least half of the issuers to be SMEs valued below €200 million.
“This license allows us to operate the first fully tokenized equity exchange in Europe, directly addressing real-world financing issues,” remarked Mark Kepeneghian, CEO of Lise.
Lise plans to initiate its first SME and midcap IPOs in early 2026, with a focus on sectors such as energy, infrastructure, and defense.
For investors, this model could facilitate easier and more transparent access to Europe’s smaller growth companies. For policymakers, it serves as a test case for employing blockchain technology to enhance and modernize capital markets.
