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Trading Venues

Overview

Venues on Polymesh provide a logical grouping of settlement instructions. They provide a way to organize and control trading activities, with specific venues being used for particular types of transactions such as primary issuance, exchange trading, or fundraising events.

Venue Types and Use Cases

Venues can be categorized into different types based on their intended use:

  • Distribution: Used for primary issuance and initial distribution of assets to investors
  • Exchange: Designated for exchange-based trading, allowing organized secondary market trading
  • STO: Specifically for Security Token Offerings or fundraising events, managing token sales
  • Other: General purpose venue type for specialized use cases

Common Applications

  • Primary Issuance: Manage initial token distribution to investors through a controlled venue
  • Exchange Integration: Create dedicated venues for specific trading platforms or exchanges
  • Fundraising: Organize and control token sales through STO venues
  • Compliance Management: Restrict trading to specific approved venues for regulatory compliance
  • Settlement Tracking: Group related transactions for better organization and audit trails
info

Venues are optional for settlement instructions. When no venue is specified, the instruction will use a default global venue. However, some assets may be restricted to trading only on specific venues as part of their compliance rules. A venue is required for instructions with an off chain leg as receipts for off chain legs must be signed by a signatory authorized by the venue owner.

Venue Management

Each venue has an owner identity that:

  • Is the sole identity that can create settlement instructions within the venue
  • Can execute fully affirmed instructions associated with that venue
  • Can add or remove receipt signers for off chain legs

Once an instruction has been created inside a venue, it cannot be moved to another venue. Venues can be reused at any time.

Technical Implementation

Creating Venues

A venue can be created by calling settlement::create_venue with the following parameters:

  • details: Venue details (such as a descriptive name)
  • signers: List of authorized receipt signers (for off chain leg receipts)
  • typ: Venue type (Distribution, Exchange, STO, or Other)

Upon successful creation, the venue is assigned a unique Venue ID that can be used for creating and approving instructions within that venue. The venue owner can later modify venue properties using:

  • settlement::update_venue_details to update the venue's details
  • settlement::update_venue_type to change the venue type
  • settlement::set_venue_signers to update the list of authorized receipt signers

Venue Filtering

Asset issuers have granular control over where their assets can be traded through venue filtering transfer restrictions:

Global Venue

When no specific venue is provided for a settlement instruction, it automatically uses a global default venue. This makes venue specification optional for basic transfers while still maintaining the ability to track and manage settlements.

Asset-Level Venue Restrictions

Asset issuers can implement venue-based trading restrictions using the following chain methods:

  1. Enabling Venue Filtering: Use settlement::set_venue_filtering to activate venue restrictions for the asset
  2. Specifying Allowed Venues: Use settlement::allow_venues to create an allowlist of permitted venues
  3. Managing Permissions: Use settlement::disallow_venues to revoke trading permissions for specific venues

These restrictions provide issuers with:

  • Control over where their assets can be traded
  • Ability to ensure trading only occurs on approved or regulated venues
  • Flexibility to adjust trading permissions as needed

When venue filtering is enabled for an asset:

  • Settlement instructions involving that asset must use an approved venue
  • Attempts to settle through non-approved venues will fail
  • The global default venue cannot be used
note

Venue filtering is independent of other compliance rules and transfer restrictions. Assets can have both venue restrictions and other compliance rules and transfer restrictions active simultaneously.