Lise to Host Europe’s First Fully Onchain IPO on April 9

- French exchange Lise to conduct Europe’s first onchain IPO for aerospace supplier ST Group. - Shares to be issued and traded as digital tokens on a blockchain platform. On April 9, 2026, the French blockchain-based stock exchange Lise (Lightning Stock Exchange) will make history by hosting Europe’s first fully onchain initial public offering (IPO). For this event, aerospace and defense supplier ST Group will issue its shares in a tokenized format, a process that will allow investors to trade the digital assets seamlessly on the blockchain. The IPO marks a key step in testing how tokenized securities can enhance liquidity and broaden investor access, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). According to media reports on April 2, 2026, Lise will conduct this groundbreaking IPO under the European Union's Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) Pilot Regime, a regulatory framework that provides a controlled environment to experiment with blockchain-based financial innovations. Unlike traditional exchanges, Lise issues and trades shares entirely as digital tokens and uses a private, permissioned blockchain built on Hyperledger Besu. Prominent financial institutions support the initiative, including BNP Paribas, CACEIS (a subsidiary of Crédit Agricole), and the public investment bank Bpifrance. Lise holds an investment firm license from French regulators and combines the functions of a Multilateral Trading Facility (MTF) and a Central Securities Depository (CSD) on a single platform. These features aim to reduce complexity, streamline the listing process, and cut costs for companies entering public markets. By implementing tokenized IPOs, Lise hopes to demonstrate how blockchain can make capital markets more accessible. This method could help other SMEs explore public financing options that were previously out of reach due to logistical and financial barriers. ST Group, a French company specializing in advanced composite materials, expects the IPO to provide a more efficient path to public markets than traditional methods. The company projects €59 million (approximately $68 million) in revenue from its programs over the next decade, a figure that highlights the business significance of the landmark offering. On the Lise platform, prospective investors can complete the entire purchase process using a simple "one-click" mechanism that covers registration, fund tokenization, and subscription. To incentivize participation, Lise charges no subscription or custody fees for primary market investors. A successful tokenized IPO could set a precedent for other SMEs to access capital markets with blockchain technology. According to reports, Lise plans to list three to four additional companies by the end of 2026. This plan signals a growing interest in tokenized securities as a potential alternative to traditional stock exchanges.