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"Our commitment to innovating within the U.S. established regulatory framework has paid off," said Aaron Kaplan, founder and co-CEO of Prometheum. "We are thrilled Prometheum ATS was approved as an ATS and very much look forward to its launch in the coming months."

Prometheum is a blockchain-focused company that offers trading of digital asset securities. It allows companies to raise capital via Prometheum’s issuance platform and offers free trading of blockchain securities to both accredited and non-accredited investors.

Unlike a traditional initial public offering (IPO), Prometheum’s model reduces time and cost and removes the need for investor accreditation.

What is an ATS?

An ATS is a trading venue that matches orders from buyers and sellers of securities. It is different from a traditional stock market because it is regulated by a broker-dealer instead of an exchange. This type of trading venue must first be approved by the SEC before it begins making transactions.

As explained by the SEC, all current ATSs are dark pools, which function as trading systems that allow users to place orders without publicly displaying the size and price of their orders to other participants in the dark pool. One of the benefits of an ATS over a traditional stock exchange is that in using it to trade large volumes, the hidden pricing doesn’t skew the market price as with regular stock exchanges.