Online retail company Overstock has confirmed that Securities and Exchange Commission approved the company’s plan to create digital stocks using distributed ledger.

Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock, said at the Inside Bitcoins conference in San Diego that for the first time SEC allowed the company to issue public securities using blockchain-based platform. Experts are convinced this decision can drastically change the way financial stocks are traded in the markets.

Overstock has developed its own technology (with the help of its subsidiary TØ.com) in order to issue stocks via blockchain and has already created private bonds that do not require mandatory approval by the regulator. The first cryptobond at the cost of $5 million was sold in July to FNY Managed Accounts LLC, an affiliate of First New York.

Overstock’s new securities trading system unifies trade and settlement processes, which allows to abandon traditional securities settlement system that incurs a number of risks.

Byrne declared that the company aims at offering the technology to other businesses so that they too could issue cryptosecurities, after obtaining approval from SEC.

Overstock was the first major online retailer to start accepting bitcoins for payment.

Anna Lavinskaya