Deutsche Börse Establishes Centrally-Steered Unit Dedicated to Blockchain, Crypto Assets

Deutsche Börse (DB) has set up a devoted unit for blockchain and crypto assets, Finextra reported September 3.

The recently settled “DLT, Crypto Assets and New Market Structures” unit will involve a 24-person team led by Jens Hachmeister and will investigate the troublesome potential the innovation could have for financial markets infrastructure, and additionally the new products DB could create to upgrade its current offerings. As Hachmeister sketched out:

“Deutsche Börse has been active with the technology in a first phase of ideation and exploration […] However, these explorative steps have not been coordinated on a group-wide level. In order to use the full potential of the technology for our businesses, to generate efficiencies and create revenues, a centrally steered approach is necessary.”

Hachmeister noted that blockchain could advance and streamline numerous traditional parts over DB’s value chain, including functions like pre-IPO listing, trading and clearing, settlement and custody, and could even be of service for DB’s financial data and analytics arm.

He admitted that while “blockchain will not be the answer to all our questions,” “expectations are high,” and that DB’s turn is driven by moving currents in the financial scene:

“The digital economy, in general, is heading for decentralization. In [the] future, there will be more peer-to-peer governed marketplaces and fewer intermediaries. In that regard, blockchain has the potential to disrupt the capital markets infrastructure.”

Recently, Cointelegraph revealed that DB has made a million euro investment to be a minority investor in blockchain-based liquidity supplier HQLAx. The fresh investment took after the two groups’ joint initiatives this March to build up a blockchain-based securities loaning platform utilizing R3 Consortium’s Corda platform.