tZERO Group, Inc. and North Capital Investment Technology, Inc. announced the successful routing of the first order via the Agora Network, a milestone that transitions the initiative from vision to live operations. The network is the industry's first designed to connect alternative trading systems (ATSs) for tokenized and private securities, addressing the persistent challenge of market fragmentation.
The milestone represents the first realization of the vision outlined when the companies announced their strategic partnership in January 2026 to create shared infrastructure. This infrastructure enables qualified participants to identify trading interest and route orders across connected venues while preserving the independence, compliance frameworks, and operational controls of each participating ATS.
Agora was created to address fragmentation in private and tokenized markets, where issuers, investors, and intermediaries have historically operated within isolated marketplaces, limiting access, visibility, and potential liquidity. Through a common discovery and routing framework, Agora allows ATS participants and their broker-dealer and institutional customers to connect to multiple ATS venues without requiring bespoke integrations with each platform.
Alan Konevsky, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of tZERO, stated, "This first order routed demonstrates that the future of tokenized securities will be built on connectivity, not isolation and fragmentation. Capital markets work best when participants can access opportunities across a broad ecosystem rather than through disconnected pools of liquidity. Agora is designed to preserve the strengths and independence of individual platforms while creating the infrastructure that allows them to participate in a larger network. Today's milestone is an important step toward a more connected market structure for tokenized and private securities as we work towards a natively technologically connected ecosystem."
Jim Dowd, Chief Executive Officer of North Capital, commented, "The successful completion of the first order routed via Agora validates the technology and market model behind the network. Our objective has been to create common infrastructure to enable greater connectivity to potential liquidity and transparency, while allowing ATSs and issuers to maintain control of their businesses. This milestone demonstrates that this vision is now operational."
The initial phase of the Agora Network enables order-routing and discovery between tZERO's ATS and North Capital's PPEX ATS, allowing eligible and approved customers of each firm, through their existing broker-dealer and ATS relationships, to identify potential trading interest and route orders through the shared framework without directly accessing the other firm's ATS. Future phases are expected to expand the network to additional ATSs, broker-dealers, liquidity providers, and other market participants, further extending access across the tokenized securities ecosystem.
The launch of live order routing powered by Agora advances both companies' broader objective of supporting a more interoperable market structure for tokenized securities and private assets, where trading interest can be discovered and orders routed across connected venues rather than remaining siloed within individual marketplaces. This development has the potential to significantly impact the tokenized securities industry by creating a more connected and liquid ecosystem, which could attract more participants and increase the efficiency of capital formation for private companies.
For more information, visit tZERO's website and North Capital's website.
