Portal and HighCircleX to tokenize pre-IPO stocks on Bitcoin

Portal’s partnership with High Circle Ventures offers the first project seeking tokenization of some of the best companies in the world on the Bitcoin blockchain.

Portal, a decentralised finance (DeFi) network built on top of Bitcoin, has teamed up with blockchain-based asset platform HighCircleX to roll out a project that seeks to tokenize the shares of some of the world’s highly anticipated pre-IPOs.

The cross-chain Layer-2 DEX, which provides for anonymity within the open, transparent markets, will work with High Circle Ventures’ marketplace to bring the pre-IPO equity onto the Bitcoin blockchain.

The tokenization will help add liquidity to illiquid assets, Portal said in a press release shared on Monday, 25 April.

Some of the top companies the project might look to tokenize include e-commerce payments firm Klarna, Elon Musk’s SpaceX, and global software firm Automation Anywhere. 

Other stocks of the highly desirable companies on the list are interactive entertainment giant Epic Games and technology infrastructure provider Cross River Bank.

‘Fractional ownership’ of hot stocks

By looking to put shares of these companies on Bitcoin, Portal is increasing the pioneer cryptocurrency’s network utility, Chandra Duggirala, the Executive Chairman of Portal, said in a statement.

“Portal is bringing real world use cases to Bitcoin. Eventually we will see tokenization of many more financial assets onto the Bitcoin blockchain,” he noted.

According to the announcement, investors will not own shares of the underlying companies. Instead, they will own tokens giving them ownership in a limited liability company (LLC) created for each representative stock.

HighCircleX (HCX) will structure and manage each respective investment bought using the funds in the LLC.  Investors can use the HCX marketplace to access features such as “liquidity, fractional trading, and instant settlement.”

These services will be available even before the targeted companies go public, according to Monday’s announcement from Portal.

Hemanth Golla, the CEO of HighcircleX, commented that this has the potential to bring about a significant expansion of the market.

“HCX makes it a breeze for investors to invest in private equity offerings. It gives members instant access to fractional ownership of stocks in the hottest companies. We believe that tokenization and fast, easy tradability that come with it will unlock and expand this market tremendously.”