Tokenized Equity: Biself Brand's Real-World Case

Equity tokenization: the real-world case of an e-commerce company

Overview

Can a company go to market without going through the traditional stock exchange? In this MERGE Madrid talk, Biself Brand —a European e-commerce company with five of its own brands— explains how it became one of the first in Europe to tokenize all its equity: every share now has a digital representation as a security token, regulated by Spain's CNMV.

What you'll learn

• Security token, not just a token: the difference between tokenizing real shares and creating a representation without the same rights
• Access from €100: how tokenization lowers the minimum ticket compared to a traditional listing
• Costs versus the stock market: why a traditional listing means high monthly costs, a placement agent and brokers
• Compliance and oversight: conversion from SL to SA, audits and registration and supervision by the CNMV
• 24/7 market and community: trading seven days a week, shares in your wallet and a shareholder community as a growth engine
• Investor protection: locking the founders' wallets (lock-up) to prevent price drops

Session summary

What Biself Brand is: according to the talk, it is an e-commerce company founded in 2008, with over 20 million euros in revenue and five of its own brands —Fit Few Fitness (fitness accessories), Greencat (gardening machinery and tools), Macuse (furniture), Bilum (Montessori-style wooden toys) and Plaking (toys)—, selling across Europe through marketplaces such as Amazon or eBay, with France as its largest market.

Tokenizing all the equity: instead of creating a token that represents the shares, the shares were tokenized directly as security tokens, with the same rights as any share; the company presents it as one of the first operations of its kind in Europe.

Why not the traditional stock market: it argues that a classic listing entails very high monthly costs, plus a placement agent and several commissions, while the blockchain route enables direct transactions and lowers the minimum ticket to 100 euros.

Trust through track record: against the sector's distrust, it explains that tokenizing the shares of a 17-year-old company, audited for over a decade, brings more credibility than creating a brand-new company in a few days or a token with no history.

Compliance like a listed company: the company changed its legal form from SL to SA (shares cannot be participations), passed external audits required by the registry and is registered and supervised by the CNMV, with periodic reports for shareholders.

Investor protection and roadmap: through a shareholders' agreement, the founders' wallets are locked for the first years to prevent a price drop; the 2025-2026 plan includes an 8-million-euro capital increase (selling 3 million shares) to cover demand in France, Italy and Portugal and, later, to enter Germany and the United Kingdom.

Watch the full talk

Watch the full recording on MERGE's YouTube channel, with Biself Brand on equity tokenization, security tokens and e-commerce.

FAQs

What's the difference between a security token and a token that represents shares?
A security token is the share tokenized directly, with the same legal rights as any share; a token that only represents does not necessarily grant those same rights.

Why tokenize instead of listing on the stock market?
According to the talk, the traditional route involves very high monthly costs, a placement agent and brokers, while tokenization enables direct transactions, a 24/7 market and a minimum ticket from 100 euros.

Is it regulated?
Yes. The company converted from SL to SA, passed external audits and is registered and supervised by the CNMV, meeting requirements equivalent to those of a listed company.

Is this investment advice?
No. The talk describes a case of equity tokenization; the content is informational and does not constitute an investment recommendation.