Creating secure access to crypto markets: ITSA and WM Datenservice link traditional and digital markets.

Berlin/Frankfurt, September 09, 2022 — As part of a cooperation agreement, the International Token Standardization Association e.V. (ITSA) and WM Datenservice are for the first time providing traditional financial markets with uniform data-based access to digital crypto markets. For this purpose, the financial information service provider WM Datenservice uses the Tokenbase provided by ITSA and offers essential master data on tokens on this basis.

“With our International Token Reference product, we build the bridge to the processing and management of digital assets in the existing settlement systems of banks and exchanges,” explains Torsten Ulrich, Managing Director of WM Datenservice, adding, “With ITR, we support the settlement of these innovative assets. It also enables the quantification of risks that may arise from the new technology, for example, through different cryptographic procedures or consensus mechanisms.”

With the International Token Reference (ITR), the two cooperation partners are linking the established identifiers with the new ones. This means that in the future there will be a link between the International Security Identification Number (ISIN) and the Classification of Financial Instruments (CFI), which have been established in the financial market for some time and are also used by regulators, and the newly developed identifiers and classifications of the ITSA for digital assets. The ITSA identifiers and classifications include the International Token Identification Number (ITIN) and the International Token Classification (ITC).

“By integrating our data on one of the most powerful market data systems, our token identification and classification data will find an even stronger distribution”, said ITSA Chairman Prof. Philipp Sandner, welcoming the cooperation. “By cooperating with WM Datenservice, we make enable our member and partner to obtain the world’s largest database on tokens in the much-used formats.”

ITIN and ITC were developed by the ITSA to increase security and transparency in the global token markets and have established themselves as market standards for identifying and classifying cryptographic tokens. They pursue the same goals at the token level (e.g., bitcoin on a specific blockchain) as the ISO-standardized identifiers ISIN and CFI at the blockchain and thus token-wide security or asset level (e.g., Bitcoin in general).

Background:

The different types of digital tokens, which include cryptocurrencies and crypto-securities, are characterized by specific information. In particular, this involves information on the respective blockchain that does not play a role in traditional assets. This includes, for example, data on cryptographic processes or block numbers. In cooperation with ITSA and using the ITSA Tokenbase, WM Datenservice will also provide this specific information in the future.

About ITSA

The International Token Standardization Association (ITSA) is a non-profit organization based in Berlin, Germany, with more than 100 affiliated founding members. The ITSA is a community of interest with the goal of developing and implementing comprehensive market standards for the identification, classification, and analysis of cryptographic tokens. In addition to common crypto tokens such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, ITSA has set its focus on creating more transparency in the field of security and DeFi tokens. For example, it’s proprietary database Tokenbase counts more than 300 classified tokens representing equity and debt, as well as several hundred liquidity positions in the form of liquidity provider (LP) tokens. All these tokens have been classified based on their characteristics, which can be divided into four-dimensional groups: economic, technological, legal and regulatory. In total, the database includes nearly 1000 classified tokens, covering over 99.9% of the market capitalization of all crypto assets.

About WM Datenservice

WM Datenservice operates a comprehensive, global financial database with integrated data/information on all national and relevant international financial instruments and offers customer-oriented products and services for holistic support of process control and management of investment and risk.