e-Sec
e-Sec is a crypto securities registrar in Düsseldorf that records bonds issued as crypto securities under the German Electronic Securities Act. For issuers it keeps the register on a distributed ledger, and for investors it handles registration, identity checks and the acquisition of the tokens.
E-SEC GmbH is a subsidiary of Chartered Investment, which founded it to keep crypto securities registers, and it started work as a registrar on 10 December 2021. BaFin supervises the company, which holds a license under section 32 of the German Banking Act for the financial service of crypto register management.
What a crypto securities registrar does
A crypto security under the eWpG exists only as an entry in a register on a tamper-proof recording system, and the registrar is responsible for that register. It records the issuer, the terms and each holder, carries out transfers and must make sure that the register always shows the correct owner.
Since 2021 this activity has needed a BaFin license as a crypto securities registrar. e-Sec began under the transitional rules and, according to IT-Finanzmagazin, received its full license in February 2025.
Services for issuers and investors
Issuers use e-Sec to issue bearer bonds as crypto securities and to keep their register over the term of the bond, including interest payments and redemption. e-Sec lists the crypto securities it has registered on its website, so investors can check an issue against the register.
Investors register with e-Sec, pass an identity check, receive the legal documents and then acquire the tokens after approval. An issue can reach investors through the blockchain or through Clearstream Banking, the central securities depository of Deutsche Börse.
Chartered Investment as parent company
Chartered Investment structures certificates and bonds for issuers, and according to e-Sec it supported the first blockchain-based certificate issue in 2018. The group set up e-Sec to keep the registers for such issues in a separate licensed company.
Together with Chartered Opus, Chartered Investment defined a further offering in which issues run both on a blockchain and through Clearstream. The managing directors of E-SEC GmbH are Daniel Maier, Markus Fehn and Dr. Thomas Sabel.
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A warning about a fake e-Sec website
e-Sec warns on its own website that the domain e-sec-crypto.io imitates the company and offers a recovery service called RecoverX. e-Sec has no connection to that service and has informed BaFin, and the official domain of the company is e-sec.io.
Investors who were promised the recovery of lost crypto assets should check the company register and the BaFin database before they pay anything. The GfK Gesellschaft für Kryptoregisterführung has published a similar warning about the misuse of its company and license details.
e-Sec in the BVeW
e-Sec was one of the seven founding members of the Bundesverband für elektronische Wertpapiere in April 2023, and its managing director Markus Fehn sits on the board of the association. The association agreed a technical standard for token-based crypto securities, so that registers of different registrars can work together.
Other registrars in the association are Cashlink and Smart Registry, the register company of NYALA Digital Asset. Issuers who compare registrars can read how an issue works under issuing tokenized securities in Germany.
e-Sec and Finance Loop
Issuers, banks and asset managers in the Finance Loop network compare registrars before they issue a bond as a crypto security, and they ask how transfers, interest payments and identity checks run in practice. Finance Loop brings their capital markets and operations teams together with registrars and platforms that have taken issues through the eWpG process.
Finance Loop is a professional network and has the goal of driving the institutional use of emerging technologies in finance, such as AI, tokenization, stablecoins, and DeFi. Finance Loop helps its members build skills and personal networks in these fields: Investment & Digital Assets, Payments & Digital Money, Digital Infrastructure & Sovereignty, and Risk & Compliance.