Bermudian-based Velocity Ledger Holdings Ltd has been approved to conduct an initial coin offering, or ICO, by the Ministry of Finance.

One of VLHL’s subsidiaries, VL Financial, wants to launch a digital asset exchange in Bermuda that would support asset-backed investment and real estate tokens. The company has applied to the Bermuda Monetary Authority for a digital asset business licence.

The coin offering is intended to fund the operations of VL Financial and another subsidiary, VL Technology Ltd, a private blockchain enabled platform for the generation of tokenised assets, secondary trading and settlement of trades.

A white paper on the offering on Velocity Ledger’s website states that the token exchange rate will be one token to one Bermuda dollar. Investors can buy tokens either with dollars or with the cryptocurrency ethereum.

“The maximum amount that the offering can raise is $22 million, assuming that all the tokens offered for sale are sold without discount,” the white paper adds.

A statement issued by the company said that VL tokens may be used for payment for licensing VL technology platform and services.

Benefits include revenue sharing and monthly distribution of newly minted tokens to stakeholders. Over the five-year revenue-sharing period, from January 2020 to January 2025, the white paper states that 833,333 tokens will be distributed among users every month. The VL token sale was approved on March 22 this year and the ICO is expected to start this month and continue through July 2019.

“Bermuda has adopted pragmatic, non-restrictive frameworks for digital assets that provide regulatory certainty to market participants,” Shawn Sloves, CEO of Velocity Ledger, said. “Bermuda will be a focal point for blockchain initiatives globally.”

David Burt, the Premier, said: “Velocity Ledger represents the exact kind of company that Bermuda is pleased to attract. They have a traditional finance industry pedigree and are building solutions for the institutional finance market.

“Their platform will showcase the potential of what fintech and Bermuda have to offer.

“I am pleased that they have been granted a licence to issue an ICO and will be proceeding to apply for a digital asset business licence. I look forward to them developing their business and creating jobs in Bermuda.”

• To see Velocity Ledger’s white paper, see the document attached under the heading of Related Media on this webpage. For more information, visit www.velocityledger.com