Overstock’s Security Token Platform To Launch Retail Broker-Dealer tZERO Markets By Mid-Year

tZERO is a security token platform operated by Overstock, the online retailer. On January 30, 2020, the platform released a summary of its business performance in the form of a review letter. The letter provided a summary of everything from 2019, including providing a detailed layout of what they intend to achieve in the course of this year.

In 2019, our focus was on building our digital securities ecosystem. In 2020, our focus will shift to building the supply & demand sides of our business. Read my latest @tZERO investor letter for more information. $OSTK $TZROPhttps://t.co/NTMnFreKnC

— Saum Noursalehi (@Noursalehi) January 30, 2020

Saum Noursalehi, the tZERO CEO, is behind the penning of this review letter which focused on various aspects of the business including an anticipated introduction of the broker-dealer program, which is also being referred to as the tZERO markets. The review states that this release is expected to occur “in the first half of this year.”

Funding from External Sources

At the same time, the company also made known their plans to approach external sources for additional funding. This is something they expect to accomplish later this year or in the beginning of next year.

tZERO was founded in January 2019. In May of the same year, they received a total of five million dollars from GSR Capital. However, tZERO still managed to miss their initial fundraising goal by a whopping 98.7 percent. In the review letter, Noursalehi wrote that:

“As Overstock management mentioned recently, it is committed to funding tZERO. As our business continues to develop in the first half of the year and we continue to hit milestones and prove out the business model further, it may become appropriate to approach external sources of capital in late 2020 or 2021.”

The Chief Executive Officer was, however, quick to point out that the only time that the platform will take this measure is when they're sure that the funding obtained from external sources will help to enhance the company, as well as the value of its stakeholders.

tZERO was in hopes that it would manage to list at least 5 security tokens on the tZERO ATS exchange by the end of last year. But this process was delayed by various regulatory and legal concerns.

Noursalehi pointed out that the exchange currently has one broker-dealer and 2 listed tokens.