TIX, a settlement layer aimed at the live-events sector, has stepped out of stealth mode to implement decentralized finance (DeFi) lending and on-chain settlement into an industry that has traditionally behaved like a private credit market.
Thus far, the TIX network has enabled over $8 million in ticket sales and produced around $2 million in venue financing. This activity has been executed through KYD Labs, with TIX planning to debut on the Solana mainnet by mid-2026, the company disclosed to Cointelegraph.
TIX, which is led by veterans from Ticketmaster and Buildspace, acts as the foundational settlement and financing layer for KYD Labs, a consumer-facing ticketing platform that secured $7 million in funding led by the venture firm a16z.
While KYD Labs offers the interface that venues and artists use to sell tickets and manage events, TIX is responsible for the on-chain infrastructure, tokenizing tickets and facilitating financing, settlement, and repayment processes.
TIX aims to reform what it sees as the live events sector’s credit-and-debt model, where venues and promoters depend on upfront financing before ticket sales commence. The company achieves this by converting tickets into on-chain real-world assets (RWAs).
In practice, this model is intended to empower venues to access immediate capital from various sources, enable artists to sell tickets directly, and provide fans with lower fees and more transparent resale policies.
Related: Securitize hires former PayPal exec as US tokenization gains traction
Ticketmaster takes blockchain technology seriously
While blockchain-based settlement layers strive to challenge Ticketmaster’s position in the ticketing market, the company itself has been exploring this technology for several years.
Ticketmaster has been engaged with blockchain technology since at least 2019, selecting the Flow blockchain in 2022 to support its non-fungible token (NFT)-based ticketing endeavors.
Since that time, Ticketmaster has issued nearly 100 million NFT tickets, as per a report from TheStreet, which highlights the ongoing integration of NFT technology across various applications as a sign of enduring adoption, even amid reduced enthusiasm since 2022.
In the meantime, advocates of RWA technology claim it provides significant advantages for ticketing, including the capability to mint tickets as unique digital assets that help combat fraud and counterfeiting. Tokenization can also enhance transparency and control within secondary resale markets.
Although NFTs and RWAs may overlap, they refer to different concepts. NFTs pertain to a token’s technical format, while RWAs denote the asset or rights that are being represented. In ticketing, an RWA can be utilized through NFTs to tokenize access.
Related: Licensing-to-earn protocol turns intellectual property rights into RWAs
