LSEG Plans Blockchain-Powered Cross-Asset Digital ‘Ecosystem’

The London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) is exploring blockchain to build “an end-to-end digital market ecosystem to raise and transfer capital across asset classes.” 

On Monday, the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) said it plans to launch a blockchain-powered digital markets business, which it described as “an end-to-end digital market ecosystem to raise and transfer capital across asset classes.” 

London-based LSEG Explores Blockchain Ecosystem

According to reports by Reuters, Murray Roos, head of capital markets at LSEG, said to the Financial Times, the exchange has been looking into the possibility of introducing a blockchain-based trading platform for the past year and had now reached an “infliction point,” and is now preparing to set its plans into motion. 

A spokesperson for the LSEG told Reuters:  

LSEG is exploring plans to build an end-to-end digital market ecosystem that will allow for the raising and transfer of capital in a more seamless, cost-efficient way across asset classes. 

Roos explained to the Financial Times that LSEG plans to use blockchain “to make a process that is slicker, smoother, cheaper and more transparent…and to have it regulated.” He added the exchange was waiting until it was “confident” that public blockchain technology could facilitate the ecosystem and investors were ready for the venture. 

Blockchain Venture Will Not Compete With LSEG’s Traditional Business

The LSEG’s new blockchain venture is planned as a separate legal entity and could, pending regulatory approval, launch within a year. The new venture will also not compete with the exchange’s traditional operation and will not boost its struggling equities market, Blockworks reports. 

Roos reportedly told Blockworks:  

“The ultimate goal is a global platform that allows participants in all jurisdictions to be able to interact with people in other jurisdictions completely abiding by rules, laws and regulations, potentially multiple jurisdictions simultaneously, which is something that hasn’t been possible in an analogue world.” 

In an earlier interview, Roos told the Financial Times the exchange is not building anything around crypto assets but is looking to blockchain to use the “technology to improve the efficiency of buying, selling and holding traditional asset, Reuters reports. 

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