As part of its annual results announcement, the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) revealed that it spent A$216 million ($150 million) to the end of June on the blockchain replacement of its CHESS settlement system. That figure covers all work since 2016 but does not include its investment in the software developer Digital Asset. The project is expected to launch at the end of 2024 at the earliest. (Update: the project has been ‘paused’).
ASX owns a 5.4% stake in Digital Asset worth A$34.6 million ($24m), which values the startup at US$443 million. The ASX said it carries the holding at fair value based on Digital Asset’s most recent funding. Japan’s SBI made a small investment in May. Before that, the startup raised $120 million in a Series D funding a year earlier, bringing its cumulate backing to $307 million.
Digital Asset’s DAML smart contract language is used for the CHESS application with the VMware Blockchain providing the distributed ledger technology (DLT).
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