Singapore-based Xen has today become the first licensed blockchain-enabled wealth management platform to issue and trade Security Tokens – digital representation of ownership of an asset.

The newly-established business, operating under a regulatory ‘sandbox license’ in Mauritius, aims to provide affluent investors access to alternative investments through its blockchain and smart contract-enabled platform.

“The alternatives space has traditionally been limited to high net worth individuals and institutions,” explained Katrina Cokeng, CEO of Xen. “We see blockchain as a great way to fractionalize investment opportunities and make them more available to affluent individuals, and more importantly provide them with liquidity so that they don’t have to be subject to very long lock-ups and redemption processes.”

Cokeng, who previously co-founded Oriente, a leading digital finance platform in Southeast Asia, has also worked investment banking and private equity at McKinsey and Co., Merrill Lynch and Pomona Capital.

The structure works similarly to a traditional fund of hedge funds, with Xen making commitments to hedge funds as a limited partner. Xen then raises money from affluent investors in the form of Security Token which can be traded on Xen’s trading platform.

“We weren’t looking to build a blockchain business per se it just so happens that the development of blockchain technology has given us a chance to open up alternative investments to more investors in a secure and transparent way,” Cokeng said.

The firm launched the beta version of its platform to invest in a quantitative hedge fund with a 5-year track record, through the XEN_Q security token.

“It’s global in nature but we are starting off with investors in Asia, particularly emerging Asian countries. The need is among these investors who have been underserved by traditional wealth managers outside of Singapore and Hong Kong,” said Cokeng. “These investors in emerging Asia also tend to be younger and we believe that because our platform is cutting-edge it’ll appeal to these more digital savvy investors.”

Blockchain-enabled wealth manager launches in Singapore on AsiaHedge.