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