France’s Lise Wins DLT Greenlight, Targeting 2026 Stock Exchange IPOs On-chain

France has officially approved the Lightning Stock Exchange (Lise), the nation’s first fully tokenized equity exchange, indicating a major shift in how public markets and IPOs could function in the digital ￰2￱ has secured a DLT TSS license from the Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution (ACPR) under the EU’s DLT Pilot Regime, a regulatory sandbox allowing blockchain-based financial infrastructures to operate within traditional legal ￰3￱ milestone, achieved in coordination with the Banque de France, ESMA, AMF, and the European Central Bank, positions Lise as the first French market infrastructure to merge the roles of a Multilateral Trading Facility (MTF) and a Central Securities Depository (CSD) on a single distributed ￰4￱ integration allows trading and post-trading operations to occur instantly, eliminating settlement delays, reducing counterparty risk, and potentially allowing 24/7 trading, something unprecedented in European capital ￰5￱ Open Tokenized IPO Path for Small and Mid-Cap Firms Lise seeks to open the public markets to small and mid-cap enterprises (SMEs and midcaps) that have traditionally faced barriers to going public.

“This is a true breakthrough for capital markets,” said Mark Kepeneghian , CEO of ￰6￱ by major institutions including BNP Paribas, Bpifrance, and CACEIS, Lise is a subsidiary of Kriptown, a French fintech that has long described itself as a “neo-exchange” for startups and growing ￰7￱ say Lise’s approval could make France a European leader in tokenized securities, setting the stage for a future where IPOs, equity trading, and investor participation happen entirely on-chain. Additionally, the exchange plans to host its first IPOs in early 2026, setting the stage for a new model of digital public offerings that merge traditional finance with blockchain ￰8￱ launch arrives amid a broader wave of tokenization in global ￰9￱ from ￰10￱ shows that real-world asset (RWA) tokenization has surged past $33.9 billion, up over 10% in the past ￰11￱ credit leads the sector with $17.5 billion, followed by ￰12￱ debt at $8.3 billion and commodities at $2.8 billion, boosted by strong growth in tokenized gold markets.) launched its Digital Markets Infrastructure (DMI) , a blockchain-based platform developed with Microsoft, to support tokenized fund issuance and ￰13￱ London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) has launched a blockchain-based infrastructure platform for private funds, marking a significant step. #London #Crypto ￰0￱ — ￰14￱ (@cryptonews) September 15, 2025 Around the same time, Nasdaq submitted a proposal to the ￰15￱ and Exchange Commission (SEC) seeking approval to trade tokenized versions of stocks under equivalent regulatory protections as traditional equities.

Meanwhile, crypto firms such as Robinhood , Kraken, and Gemini have already begun offering tokenized stock trading in Europe , while others, including Coinbase and Dinari, are pursuing ￰16￱ ￰17￱ retail-focused tokenized stock market has grown rapidly, reaching $412 million in value, up from just a few million last ￰18￱ World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) warned global regulators that tokenized stocks “mimic” equities without offering shareholder rights or market trading safeguards. #WFE #TokenizedStocks #BlockchainTokens ￰1￱ — ￰19￱ (@cryptonews) August 26, 2025 However, regulators remain ￰20￱ World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) recently urged global watchdogs , including the SEC and ESMA, to tighten oversight on tokenized equities, warning that many of these instruments lack shareholder rights or proper safeguards.