This launch represents a strategic expansion for tZERO, cultivating demand by equipping private companies with structured liquidity options, enhanced cap table control, and a natural pathway to tokenization.
NEW YORK CITY, NY / ACCESS Newswire / September 25, 2025 / tZERO, an institutional-grade platform and technology provider delivering compliant trading and tokenization solutions, has launched a Private Market Auction Facility service to help companies take control of their cap tables and provide investors and employee shareholders with a transparent way to buy and sell shares.
This initiative represents a new standard in how private companies can approach liquidity: structured, company-driven, and free from the inefficiencies of ad hoc transactions. Through tZERO’s innovative auction design and regulated infrastructure, issuers now have a tailored solution that keeps the focus where it belongs – on building their business.
To develop this solution, tZERO and its broker-dealer subsidiaries partnered with seasoned business development professionals, including John Murray, an exchange veteran with over 30 years of leadership across listed and unlisted markets, and Marc Philips, who brings more than 25 years of Silicon Valley founding and investing experience. Their expertise and deep connections across the innovation economy ensure the strategy is informed by real-world issuer and investor needs.
Private companies and their sponsors often face a choice between loss of control when employees and early investors look to sell their shares or limiting liquidity optionality for their long-standing supporters. tZERO’s new Private Market Auction Facility solves this challenge by giving issuers control over secondary activity – preserving cap table integrity while still enabling much-needed liquidity through an auction system.
tZERO’s auction facility begins with the issuer, unlike other liquidity platforms designed around buyers and sellers. The process is designed to give companies full control over participation, timing, frequency, and information sharing. Issuers can even bid to repurchase stock, ensuring fair treatment for employees and a level playing field for investors.
Key advantages include:
Controlled ownership: Companies can determine who can bid at the auction – no surprises turning up on the cap table.
Privacy and discretion: Due diligence access can be gated to protect against competitors accessing commercially sensitive company information.
Fairness and efficiency: Auctions treat all sellers equally and ensure transactions occur at a market-determined price.
Regulated broker-dealer led process that delivers a secure and compliant environment, with KYC, AML and other processes already taken care of by tZERO broker-dealers.
The tZERO auction model concentrates trading into defined moments, ensuring decisions are made at the auction rather than left to prolonged bilateral negotiations as on other platforms. This approach crystallizes the process, simplifies price discovery through a single “clearing price”, factors out the risk of enterprise values and NAVs being left at the mercy of unchecked continuous trading in niche environments and removes the burden of one-off negotiations – particularly valuable for employee shareholders less familiar with complex transactions.
tZERO provides a true white-glove service – handling everything from onboarding and escrow through the auction process, and coordinates directly with the transfer agent at settlement. The result is a secure, compliant, and issuer-friendly experience that lifts both the administrative and strategic burden from the C-suite.
“Private companies want liquidity solutions that reflect their unique needs,” said Alan Konevsky, CEO, tZERO. “With this auction facility, we’re not just solving for shareholder liquidity – we’re helping issuers activate their own networks, turning stakeholders into engaged participants in recurring marketplace events. Each auction strengthens ties with employees, early backers, and new participants, while laying the groundwork for tokenization and future capital formation. For tZERO, developments such as this provide another ramp for us to deploy tokenization and related services.”
“This product from tZERO is an outstanding innovation, providing bespoke trading facilities for companies wishing to remain private, I’m thrilled to be involved in the rollout,” added Murray.
By starting with structured auction events, issuers gain a foundation that can naturally extend into future digital strategies. The same infrastructure that supports fair and controlled secondary sales can also position companies to digitize ownership records, streamline shareholder management, and explore tokenized models for broader capital formation. This progression helps issuers meet current liquidity needs while keeping open the option to embrace more efficient, transparent structures as their business evolves.
For investors, the model provides the comfort of knowing there will be a regular liquidity event for mark-to-market, top-up purchases, or exits – helping them plan with greater confidence.
tZERO Group, Inc. is a pioneer in blockchain and tokenization innovation for financial markets, delivering institutional-grade technology and a regulated marketplace for tokenized securities and other assets. tZERO empowers issuers to digitize and manage their cap tables, while enabling investors, institutions, and broker-dealers to access liquidity in private assets. By combining compliance, security, and automation, tZERO is redefining how capital is raised, traded, and owned in the Web3 era.
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Media Contact:
Julie Ros, Head of Marketing & Communications
[email protected]
About tZERO
tZERO Group, Inc. (tZERO) and its broker-dealer subsidiaries provide an innovative liquidity platform for private companies and assets. We offer institutional-grade solutions for issuers looking to digitize their capital table through blockchain technology, and make such equity available for trading on an alternative trading system. tZERO, through its broker-dealer subsidiaries, democratizes access to private assets by providing a simple, automated, and efficient trading venue to broker-dealers, institutions, and investors. All technology services are offered through tZERO Technologies, LLC. For more information, please visit our website.
About tZERO Digital Asset Securities
tZERO Digital Asset Securities, LLC is a broker-dealer registered with the SEC and a member of FINRA and SIPC. It is the broker-dealer custodian of all digital asset securities offered on tZERO’s online brokerage platform. It operates in accordance with the SEC’s statement, dated December 23, 2020, regarding the Custody of Digital Asset Securities by Special Purpose Broker-Dealers. Digital asset securities may not be “securities” as defined under the Securities Investor Protection Act (SIPA)-and in particular, digital asset securities that are “investment contracts” under the Howey test but are not registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission are excluded from SIPA’s definition of “securities”-and thus the protections afforded to securities customers under SIPA may not apply. More information about tZERO Digital Asset Securities may be found on FINRA’s BrokerCheck.
About tZERO Securities
tZERO Securities, LLC is a broker-dealer registered with the SEC and a member of FINRA and SIPC. It is the operator of the tZERO Securities ATS. More information about tZERO Securities may be found on FINRA’s BrokerCheck.
Investor Notice
Digital asset securities, as well as any particular investment, may not be suitable or appropriate for everyone. Investors should note that investing or trading in securities could involve substantial risks, including no guarantee of returns, costs associated with selling and purchasing, and no assurance of liquidity which could impact their price and investor’s ability to sell, and possible loss of principal invested. There is always the potential of losing money when you invest in securities. There are also unique risks specific to digital asset securities, including, without limitation, fraud, manipulation, theft, and loss.
No Offer, Solicitation, Investment Advice or Recommendations
This release is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell, a solicitation to buy, or a recommendation for any security, nor does it constitute an offer to provide investment advisory or other services by tZERO or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers, directors or employees. No reference to any specific security constitutes a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold that security or any other security. Nothing in this release shall be considered a solicitation or offer to buy or sell any security, future, option or other financial instrument or to offer or provide any investment advice or service to any person in any jurisdiction. Nothing contained in this release constitutes investment advice or offers any opinion with respect to the suitability of any security, and the views expressed in this release should not be taken as advice to buy, sell or hold any security. In preparing the information contained in this release, we have not taken into account the investment needs, objectives, and financial circumstances of any particular investor. This information has no regard to the specific investment objectives, financial situation, and particular needs of any specific recipient of this information and investments discussed may not be suitable for all investors. Any views expressed in this release by us were prepared based upon the information available to us at the time such views were written. Changed or additional information could cause such views to change. All information is subject to possible corrections. Information may quickly become unreliable for various reasons, including changes in market conditions or economic circumstances.
Forward-Looking Statements
This release contains forward-looking statements. In addition, from time to time, tZERO, its subsidiaries, or its representatives may make forward-looking statements orally or in writing. These forward-looking statements are based on expectations and projections about future events, which is derived from currently available information. Such forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance, including financial performance and projections; growth in revenue and earnings; and business prospects and opportunities. You can identify forward-looking statements by those that are not historical in nature, particularly those that use terminology such as “may,” “should,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “contemplates,” “estimates,” “believes,” “plans,” “projected,” “predicts,” “potential,” or “hopes” or the negative of these or similar terms. In evaluating these forward-looking statements, you should consider various factors, including, without limitation: the ability of tZERO and its subsidiaries to change the direction; tZERO’s ability to keep pace with new technology and changing market needs; performance of individual transactions; regulatory developments and matters; and competition. These and other factors may cause actual results to differ materially from any forward-looking statement. Forward-looking statements are only predictions. The forward-looking events discussed in this release and other statements made from time to time by tZERO, its subsidiaries or their respective representatives, may not occur, and actual events and results may differ materially and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions. tZERO, its subsidiaries, and its representatives are not obligated to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of uncertainties and assumptions, the forward-looking events discussed in this release and other statements made from time to time by tZERO, its subsidiaries or its representatives might not occur.
SOURCE: tZERO Group, Inc