Tokenization platform Securitize says it expects to raise $400 million in its upcoming public offering through a merger with a company backed by Cantor Fitzgerald.
Secure he said on Friday that final redemption results showed that less than 30% of shareholders of Cantor Equity Partners II (CEPT), the special purpose acquisition company that will take Securitize public, elected to redeem.
The company said it expects to receive approximately $400 million in gross proceeds from the merger, including related private investment in public equity, or PIPE, financing and excluding transaction-related expenses.
Securitize will be the latest high-profile cryptocurrency-related public debut as Wall Street seeks exposure to tokenization, an area that is enjoying increased investor interest and attention from U.S. regulators.
Shares of the company being acquired by Cantor rallied on Friday, closing the trading day up 7% to $10.86 and continuing to rise after hours to $11.
CEPT shares rallied on Friday after Securitize announced fewer shareholder redemptions than expected. Source: Google Finance
The merger of Securitize and CEPT is expected to close on Wednesday, July 1, subject to shareholder approval on Monday and other closing conditions, and the company will then be listed under the symbol SECZ on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, July 2.
“Reaching public markets is a significant milestone for Securitize and a reflection of the growing momentum behind tokenization,” said Securitize co-founder and CEO Carlos Domingo.
Source: Carlos Domingo
“When we started over eight years ago, the idea that major institutions would use tokenized securities was still largely theoretical,” Domingo added. “Today tokenization is entering the mainstream.”
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Securitize is backed by major institutions such as BlackRock and Morgan Stanley and crypto companies including Coinbase and Circle, and has established itself as a leader in the tokenization sector, where assets are represented on blockchains.
In March, the company partnered with the New York Stock Exchange to create tokenized assets for the exchange’s upcoming tokenized securities platform,
Standard Chartered said earlier this month that it expects the amount of tokenized assets lively in decentralized finance to boost 37-fold to $2.7 trillion by the end of 2030.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was reportedly poised to allow trading in tokenized stocks in mid-May, but delayed the plan later that month after stock exchange officials raised concerns about how it would be implemented.
