Veneri Savoia (Dexx): “In recent days, we tokenized for the first time a painting by Lucio Fontana, a Rolls-Royce, and a racehorse. Three real assets typically outside investors’ choices.”
The platform focuses on three types of assets: art, sports (from tennis to golf, horse racing, and football), and financial products (especially the tokenization of investment funds).
A global survey by Bain & Company reveals that over 50% of ultra-high-net-worth individuals and 38% of high-net-worth individuals state that their alternative portfolio share will increase in the next three years
Imagine being able to invest in a work of art by Lucio Fontana for a few euros, or in a Rolls-Royce or even a racehorse. It might seem utopian, but it’s not. Dexx, a fintech platform promoted by an international team of experts in investments, law, and technology, founded by Look Lateral and Colombo & Partners, allows you to do all this. Specializing in the tokenization of assets (both existing and native digital), it democratizes investments that are “otherwise inaccessible,” says Niccolò Filippo Veneri Savoia, CEO of Look Lateral and president of Dexx, who spoke at the event “New market makers for future asset & security tokens.” But how does it work?
“Firstly, I would like to clarify that we have nothing to do with cryptocurrencies,” Veneri Savoia emphasizes. “They were the first product of blockchain technology, but this technology can do much more. The second aspect I would like to highlight is that we do it in a regulated manner. We started in Switzerland because it was the first high-reputation jurisdiction to regulate this matter uniformly and comprehensively. We have built a technological-financial and legal infrastructure for the tokenization and trading of real assets and financial products. We manage the entire process, from token ideation through creation, primary market placement to secondary market trading, which, by the way, is one of the most important aspects on a business level, where we have invested a lot of energy, resources, and studies that have led us to a unique result in the world,” explains the CEO.
How to Invest in a Tennis Player’s Performance
The platform focuses on three types of assets: art, sports (from tennis to golf, horse racing, and football), and financial products (especially the tokenization of investment funds). “It is a hybrid platform, so it does not have the rigid tracks of a completely decentralized blockchain like Ethereum,” Veneri Savoia points out. This is important because it allows institutions and companies to leverage their existing digital systems without revolutionizing them, he adds. “Blockchain is often talked about as revolutionizing how assets are traded. In reality, perhaps the real revolution is to say that there will be no revolution if approached in a certain way. I like to talk about evolution, as simple and natural as possible,” says the CEO. “In recent days, we tokenized for the first time a painting by Lucio Fontana, a Rolls-Royce, and a racehorse. So three real, important assets that are typically outside the choices of investors.”
“We are at the beginning of creating a new sports market,” suggests Luca Ferrari, partner and global head of sports at Withers. “A racehorse is an asset that produces income and can be bought and sold, like a work of art. But there are also other types of assets. A tennis player, for example, is an asset that generates income in two ways: with prize money and commercial activities. Creating a relationship between the tennis player who progressively climbs the rankings and the value of the token, both in the primary and secondary markets, not only makes otherwise inaccessible alternative investments accessible but also offers a very important opportunity to athletes who need to finance their careers, such as tennis players, golfers, and racing drivers. All of this is achieved by creating an algorithm that allows assigning a value to each progress, combining finance and sports in a sustainable, interesting, and fun way,” Ferrari observes.
Opportunities for the Wealth Management Industry
The platform is designed to be accessible to retail investors but also opens up to the B2B market, allowing other players (especially banks) to connect to the technological infrastructure so that through their existing digital systems and through their brand, they can offer services and available tokens to their customers. “We have a great opportunity for the entire financial sector and, within the financial sector, also for wealth management,” intervenes Andrea Viganò, managing director of Av Advisory. “Wealth management essentially deals with clients’ financial assets only, but we know that they hold much more. In Italy alone, they have as much in real estate as in financial assets, but also cars, pleasure assets, and so on. With tokenization, we enable intermediaries to make even small portions of these assets investable. And, depending on the intermediary, they become both tradable and consultable,” Viganò concludes.
Rossi, PwC: “A market of 16 trillion by 2030.”
But let’s look at the numbers. According to a recent Ey analysis, 61% of high net worth individuals will invest in tokenized forms of assets by 2024. In the case of institutions, a share of 37% is mentioned. “From 2 to 6% of the asset allocation of these subjects will change to embrace tokenization,” says Stefano Rossi, senior manager at PwC Italy. “We estimate that the tokenization of illiquid assets will reach $16 trillion by 2030,” he adds. A global survey conducted by Bain & Company also reveals that over 50% of ultra-high-net-worth individuals and 38% of high-net-worth individuals state that their alternative portfolio share will increase in the next three years. What is missing, then? “Our survey shows why investment in alternative assets is still so limited, analyzing the responses of asset managers, advisors, and individual investors,” says Flavio Rettore, associate partner at Bain & Company. “Asset managers cite two main themes: regulation and access, advisors liquidity and fees, while investors declare that they do not know this matter well and do not know what offers are on the table, creating a barrier to investment.” Innovation, in this whole process, can lend a hand. And tokenization can, in turn, play a role. But to make it “the technology of the future,” according to Rettore, there are six elements to address:
- Accessibility and liquidity, i.e., being able to buy and sell tokens efficiently and at fair and stable prices;
- Trust and transparency;
- Creating marketplaces and exchanges that make access more “user-friendly”;
- Interoperability;
- Governance and regulation;
- Finally, education.
