Dinari, a platform that issues tokenised versions of real-world backed assets, has raised $7.5million in a seed investment, which comes as it rolls out the dShare Platform.
Investors that contributed to this seed investment include the former chief technology officer of Coinbase, Sancus Ventures, Version One VC, and Third Kind Venture Capital.
“Dinari became a registered SEC transfer agent in 2022 and is pursuing other licenses to expand their offering with the influx of capital. Dinari is focused on becoming the trusted standard for real-world asset backed tokens,” the press release said.
Despite having approval from the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Dinari is launching the dShare Platform outside of the US. It comes as exchanges like Binance and Coinbase are facing charges for operating as unregistered security platforms.
What is Dinari and dShares?
Dinari was founded in 2021 with a mission to provide blockchain alternatives to corporate equity. Its dShare platform is at the forefront of this goal.
Investors can purchase stocks like Apple or Tesla via an Arbitrum crypto wallet. This is only accessible for customers outside of the US because of the hostile regulatory environment.
Like stablecoins, the dShare stock tokens are backed 1:1 with real world assets.
“Our transparency page is accessible for anyone to view, and we also provide a live feed of our brokerage accounts so that our users can have every confidence in our 1-1 backing. Furthermore, we are working with regulators from all around the world to ensure that our offering complies with rigorous regulatory compliance requirements,” Chas Rampenthal, Dinari co-founder and chief legal officer, told CoinDesk.
Why Dinari created dShares?
The motivation behind dShares is rooted in global financial disparities. In nations like Mexico or Thailand, brokerage accounts are a rarity, with less than 1% of the population having access.
Meanwhile, blockchain wallet ownership in these regions can range between 5% and 10%. In areas where faith in central governance and banking systems is shaky, many don’t hold traditional corporate equity.
Dinari’s dShare Platform aims to bridge this gap. By tokenising publicly traded corporate equity securities, dShare offers users outside the US a trusted and secure avenue to access corporate equity markets.
Rise of real world-backed assets
After the downfall of the Terra and LUNA assets, stablecoins that had real-world backing saw greater popularity compared to algorithmic coins.
Every dShare token is backed by the same amount of real world stocks. For example, all $77.09 of its issued Microsoft stocks are 100% backed by the real asset. The platform publishes all of this information on its transparency page.
Dinari is not the only company to venture out into this sector of the crypto industry. Real world-backed assets are seeing a rise in popularity.
Hamilton Lane, an investment company with $824billion in assets, now offers tokenised access to two funds. This is provided through a feeder fund via the Polygon blockchain.
There is more stiff competition facing Dinari. Backed Finance, a crypto platform offering tokenised assets, recently announced it was launching on Polygon. As well as Matic’s native blockchain, the rival product is available on BNB Chain, Avalanche, Fantom, Arbitrum, and Ethereum.
Dinari is also prioritising interoperability. Its whitepaper reads: “As a transparent, accessible, and interoperable standard for Securities Backed Tokens, Dinari dShares enables a core building block for a more fair and open financial system.”
