Mongolia has become the first country in the world to operate a fully blockchain-powered over-the-counter (OTC) securities market with 24-hour continuous trading on business days. The system, developed and implemented by the AND Denode team, processes regulated securities trades around the clock with automated settlement completing in under one minute.
This is the story of how we built it.
From Sandbox to Live Market
The journey began with an 18-month testing period inside the Financial Regulatory Commission (FRC)'s regulatory sandbox — a controlled environment designed to evaluate new financial technologies before they enter the real market. During this phase, the team at AND Denode worked closely with the FRC, the Mongolian Association of Securities Dealers (MASD), and the Mongolian Central Securities Depository (MCSD) to ensure the blockchain infrastructure met the regulatory, operational, and security standards required for live securities trading.
The FRC officially announced the transition of Mongolia's OTC market to blockchain technology on September 12, 2025, at the "Mongolia's Capital Market Connectivity 2025" international conference in Ulaanbaatar. The event brought together over 100 delegates from more than 20 countries across Asia.
What the Blockchain System Actually Does
Traditional securities settlement typically takes one to two business days. Buyers and sellers must wait for intermediaries to verify, match, and process each transaction through multiple systems before ownership officially transfers.
AND Denode's blockchain-based trading system eliminates this delay entirely. Every trade executed on the platform is settled automatically within less than a minute — directly on the blockchain. There is no manual reconciliation, no batch processing at the end of the day, and no settlement risk from delayed transfers.
This instant settlement capability is what made 24/5 continuous trading possible. With it, the market can operate around the clock on business days without any degradation in processing speed or reliability. For investors, faster settlement means more efficient control over their cash — funds are no longer locked up for days waiting for trades to clear, allowing them to reinvest or reallocate capital almost immediately.
40% Growth in Three Months
The results have been immediate. In the three months since the blockchain system went live in September, secondary market trading activity on the OTC platform increased by 40 percent. Market participants attribute this growth to the speed and reliability of automated settlement, which has removed much of the friction that previously discouraged active trading on the OTC market.
With the launch of 24/5 continuous trading on December 15, 2025, market operators expect trading volumes to accelerate further as investors gain the ability to trade outside conventional business hours.
How It All Fits Together
The blockchain OTC market operates through a collaboration between four key organizations:
The Financial Regulatory Commission (FRC) is Mongolia's regulatory authority over the non-banking financial sector. The FRC provided regulatory guidance and the regulatory sandbox environment for testing, oversaw the 18-month trial period, and authorized the blockchain system's transition to the live market.
The Mongolian Association of Securities Dealers (MASD) manages and oversees all trading operations on the OTC platform. As the self-regulatory organization for Mongolia's securities industry, MASD has been operating the professional investor-only OTC market since 2021.
The team at AND Denode, a regulated Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) and subsidiary of AND Global Group, developed and implemented the blockchain trading technology. AND Denode specializes in the tokenization of real-world assets and building blockchain infrastructure for regulated financial markets.
The Mongolian Central Securities Depository (MCSD) handles securities custody, registration, and ownership records. By integrating with the blockchain system, the MCSD enabled fully automated payment settlement — a critical component for making instant trade finalization possible.
What This Means for Mongolia's Capital Market
Mongolia's implementation demonstrates that blockchain technology can operate within a fully regulated securities market framework — not as an experiment, but as production infrastructure handling real trades with real settlement.
For the domestic market, the benefits are tangible: faster settlement reduces counterparty risk, 24/5 trading hours increase accessibility, and automated processes lower operational costs. For the global financial industry, Mongolia's OTC market serves as a working proof of concept that regulated blockchain securities trading is not only viable but already operational. As blockchain technology transforms traditional finance into the next generation of capital markets, Mongolia's OTC market shows what that future looks like in practice.
AND Denode is a regulated Virtual Asset Service Provider specializing in blockchain infrastructure for financial markets and the tokenization of real-world assets. AND Denode is a subsidiary of AND Global Group, a fintech company with 13 subsidiaries and 250 employees operating across 11 countries. Learn more at denode.io.