Law Firm DLA Piper Launches Security Tokenization Platform TOKO

On November 22, DLA Piper, a law firm operating in more than 40 countries, announced the launch of its new security token platform TOKO, which will allow investors to purchase fractions of tokenized assets. The project was developed in collaboration with Aldersgate DLS (Digital Ledger Solutions), and is built on Hedera Hashgraph, Hyperledger Fabric, and Microsoft Azure.

Hedera is a decentralized public network where developers can build secure applications with near real-time finality. The platform is governed by a council consisting of some of the world’s leading organizations, including Boeing, Deutsche Telekom, Google, IBM, UCL, LG Electronics, and Tata Communications.

TOKO leverages Hedera Hashgraph’s consensus algorithm and time stamping to deliver a secure tokenization service through the platform. Moreover, the Hedera Consensus Service (HCS) will provide transaction ordering through a Hyperledger Fabric network with various organizations, peers, and orderers. According to DLA Piper, the network will be deployed in the Microsoft Azure cloud environment, connecting to the Hedera public mainnet.

In the announcement, DLA Piper and Aldersgate DLS claimed to have successfully completed the first tokenization project on the platform, featuring a fine art asset. This month, the artwork, created by Chinese artist Wang Xiao Bo, was commissioned and purchased by a select group of the company’s Hong Kong partners in an unregulated security offering.

Scott Thiel, Partner at DLA Piper, said that the company will try to deliver a full ecosystem for digital asset tokenization, and that TOKO was only the first step. He further stated that the firm will utilize investor feedback and build out collaborations with new consortium partners to create a “robust, trusted marketplace for digital assets.”