Paris-based Lise (Lightning Stock Exchange) has become the first company in Europe authorized to operate a fully tokenized equity exchange, the company said on Thursday.
The exchange, which targets the SME IPO market in France, received a DLT TSS license from France’s financial regulator, the ACPR, under the EU’s Distributed Ledger Technology Pilot Regime, according to a press release.
The authorization, developed with input from the Banque de France, ESMA, AMF, and the European Central Bank, allows Lise to combine the roles of a Multilateral Trading Facility (MTF) and a Central Securities Depository (CSD) within one digital framework.
Lise counts among its shareholders CACEIS (a subsidiary of the Crédit Agricole Group), BNP Paribas, and Bpifrance. The tokenization-friendly exchange targets French firms with market capitalizations below €500 million ($582m), and seeks at least half of the issuers to be SMEs with valuations under €200 million.
“This license allows us to operate the first fully tokenized equity exchange in Europe, offering a direct response to real-world financing challenges,” said Mark Kepeneghian, Lise’s CEO.
Lise plans to list its first SME and midcap IPOs in early 2026, focusing on sectors such as energy, infrastructure, and defense.
For investors, the model could make exposure to Europe’s smaller growth firms easier and more transparent. For policymakers, it represents a test case in using blockchain technology to simplify and modernize capital markets.
