Digital Asset Raises Over $50 Million In Latest Funding; Strikes A Deal With ASX

Blockchain startup Digital Asset Holdings, LLC, has announced that it has raised over $50 million in funding from thirteen leading firms from financial ecosystem that includes ABN AMRO, Accenture, ASX Limited, BNP Paribas, Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc., Citi, CME Ventures, Deutsche Börse Group, ICAP, J.P. Morgan, Santander InnoVentures, The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) and The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.

“These investments represent a tremendous endorsement of Digital Asset from banks, exchanges, settlement and clearing firms, central securities depositories, and market infrastructure and professional services providers,” said Blythe Masters, CEO of Digital Asset. “Our strategic investors have come together from across the financial services industry to help drive global adoption of transformative solutions which enhance the vital services that they provide.”

The company also announced that it is expanding its Board of Directors to nine members, which will now comprise of Catherine Flax, Head of Commodity Derivatives and Foreign Exchange & Local Markets, Americas of BNP Paribas; Ashwin Kumar, Group Head of Product Development of Deutsche Börse Group; Sanoke Viswanathan, Chief Administrative Officer of J.P. Morgan’s Corporate & Investment Bank, and Mike Bodson, President & Chief Executive Officer of DTCC, who will join Blythe Masters, Donald Wilson, Sunil Hirani, Cristóbal Conde and an additional director who will be named shortly.

Digital Asset, launched last year, aims to improve efficiency, security, compliance and settlement speed while reducing costs through the implementation of Distributed Ledger Technology.

Deal With ASX

Digital Asset Holdings also announced that it has been selected by ASX Limited (ASX) to develop solutions for the Australian market utilizing Distributed Ledger Technology. This is in line with the announcement made by ASX last February regarding its plans for a major overhaul of its main trading and post-trade platforms.

Bloomberg reported that the Digital Asset was selected out of 400 applicants for the contract to remake its clearing and settlement system.

“Digital Asset is delighted to be selected to design the world’s first national scale post-trade solution utilizing Distributed Ledger Technology,” said Blythe Masters, CEO of Digital Asset. “The Australian equities market could benefit tremendously from this new technology and enable ASX to better serve existing clients and create new opportunities.”

The initial focus will be on post-trade (clearing and settlement) services in the cash equities market, the press release said. In the first phase, ASX’s existing trading and risk management systems will be replaced, while the next phase will focus on ASX’s post-trade services, including clearing and settlement of the cash equities market.

The press release said that during the initial 6 to 12 months, a solution will be developed to demonstrate the benefits that Distributed Ledger Technology brings to a broad range of users – including investors, listed companies and intermediaries.

ASX and Digital Asset will work together with Australia’s financial market regulators and Government agencies to assess the benefits that a new solution could deliver to them, as well as the implications for the regulatory framework that is the backbone of Australia’s financial markets.

“Distributed Ledger Technology could provide a once in a generation opportunity to reduce cost, time and complexity in the post-trade environment of Australia’s equity market,” said Elmer Funke Kupper, Managing Director and CEO of ASX. “Moreover, it could stimulate greater innovation by ASX and other providers of services to issuers, investors and intermediaries. ASX and Digital Asset will work together to design a solution and share the potential benefits with clients and regulators.”