The Gibraltar Blockchain Exchange (GBX), a subsidiary of the Gibraltar Stock Exchange (GSX), has raised $27 million in its token sale which commenced on February 7.

Originally set to run until February 14, the GBX token sale concluded at 12:00 (UTC) on February 8, after reaching its hard cap of US $27 million. The token sale closed with a total of 258.56 million RKT, representing US $21 million, distributed in the GBX pre-sale which concluded in December 2017, and 60 million RKT made available in the public token sale, representing US $6 million.

Of the 60 million RKT distributed during the public token sale, GBX distributed 35 million to whitelisted registrants, while 25 million RKT were distributed by GBX strategic partner, QUOINE, a Japanese crypto exchange.

"The level of support which we have received since the official launch of the GBX in 2017 and the initiation of our token sale is invigorating and inspiring," said Nick Cowan, CEO of the Gibraltar Blockchain Exchange.

The funding will be used to facilitate the expansion of the GBX ecosystem and further develop the GBX trading platform, GBX said in its official release.

"The capital raised during the GBX token sale will ensure that we are adequately resourced to further develop the GBX trading platform and the broader GBX ecosystem, which will be based upon the principles of decentralisation and community consensus, as we enter into 2018. All funds received will go towards making our overall goal of laying the foundation for the global expansion of a regulated cryptocurrency market a reality," added Cowan.

Launched in October 2017, the GBX aims to be one of the world's first licensed and regulated token sale platform and digital asset exchanges that is operated by a European Union (EU) regulated stock exchange. The GBX will operate in full compliance with, and benefit from, Gibraltar's jurisdictional Distributed Ledger Technology Regulatory Framework (DLTRF) - which came into effect on January 1, 2018.