FRANKFURT, 17 April, 2025– Dusk and 21X are pleased to announce that Dusk has onboarded with 21X as a trade participant, gaining access to 21X’s regulated market infrastructure. The partnership’s initial focus will be on opening 21X’s platform to Dusk’s asset flow, starting with stablecoin treasury investment in tokenized money market funds.
This move reflects a growing market desire for a compliant, efficient, and interoperable digital capital market ecosystem.
Dusk is a blockchain infrastructure purpose-built for regulated financial markets, while 21X is the first company to receive a DLT-TSS license under European regulation for fully tokenized securities.
Uniting Compliance, Infrastructure, and Market Access
21X brings deep regulatory expertise and infrastructure to capital markets, having secured the first EU DLT-TSS license to operate a blockchain-based market infrastructure for the trading and settlement of tokenized real-world assets. The platform is focused on enabling compliant primary issuance and secondary trading of tokenized equities, funds, bonds and other debt instruments.
Dusk, meanwhile, has engineered a purpose-built Layer-1 blockchain, as well as DuskEVM Layer-2, with native support for confidential smart contracts, zero-knowledge compliance, and settlement—making it one of the few networks focused squarely on enterprise-grade RWA solutions.
“We are excited to onboard Dusk as a trading participant within the 21X ecosystem,”
said Max Heinzle, CEO at 21X.
“Their commitment to tokenized asset trading on our platform reinforces our shared vision for a compliant digital asset ecosystem. As we build the infrastructure for the next generation of capital markets, interoperability with appropriate networks is crucial.”
Emanuele Francioni, CEO at Dusk, added:
“21X has been a pioneer in regulated digital securities, and their early licensing success is a milestone for the entire industry. Partnering with them supports our mission of enabling secure and compliant on-chain financial activity.”
A Strong Signal for the RWA Sector
The partnership with 21X, through its pioneering role in licensed tokenized trading, signals growing maturity and collaboration within the RWA space. It also helps lay the groundwork for a scalable, compliant future in on-chain finance.
21X’s significance lies in its groundbreaking achievement as the first platform to receive a DLT market infrastructure license (DLT-TSS) under the EU’s DLT Pilot Regime, while Dusk is the first permissionless protocol to power the infrastructure of licensed Multilateral Trading Facilities (MTFs) and security exchanges in the Netherlands and the EU.
This positions 21X as a leader in regulated tokenized securities trading, and Dusk as a strong choice for institutional finance DLT.
By combining its regulatory-first approach with scalable market infrastructure, 21X provides the essential legal and operational foundation needed for real-world asset tokenization to transition from pilots to production at institutional scale. This makes 21X a critical node in Europe’s emerging digital capital market landscape, with Dusk being a launch participant on 21X.
About Dusk
Dusk is a public, permissionless Layer 1 blockchain purpose-built for regulated financial markets. It enables the native issuance, trading, and settlement of real-world assets in full compliance with EU regulations like MiFID II, MiCA, and the DLT Pilot Regime. Through strategic partnerships, Dusk facilitates the creation of secondary markets for digital securities. With privacy-preserving smart contracts, zero-knowledge compliance infrastructure, and institutional custody solutions like Dusk Vault, Dusk provides the complete stack for compliant on-chain finance in Europe.
For more information about Dusk:
Contact: Emanuele Carboni – CMO
Email: carboni@dusk.network
Website: https://dusk.network/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dusknetwork/
About 21X
21X is a Frankfurt-based financial institution at the forefront of revolutionizing capital markets through the use of blockchain technology. In December 2024, 21X secured a license to operate its groundbreaking distributed ledger technology trading and settlement system (DLT TSS), a milestone that places the company as a leader in the transition to digital finance. The company is ideally positioned to enable smart contract-based issuance, trading and settlement of tokenized stocks, bonds and funds.
See the short explainer video on 21X and our blockchain-based exchange here.
For more information on 21X, contact:
Richie MacTaggart, head of PR & marketing
Mail: press@21X.eu
Mob: +44 7828173419
Web: https://www.21x.eu/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/21x/
