Hassan Maishera
The head of the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) has claimed his distributed ledger technology (DLT) settlement system would be bigger than the entire cryptocurrency market.
ASX’s blockchain would be larger than Bitcoin
Dominic Stevens, the head of the ASX, has claimed that the DLT settlement system they are building would be larger than the entire cryptocurrency market. The cryptocurrency market is currently worth over $1.3 trillion. However, Stevens is confident that their system would trump that.
The DLT settlement system is designed to settle and clear the Australian equity market. The blockchain’s value is estimated to be larger than the entire cryptocurrency market combined. “We are moving two to three trillion dollars of securities onto this system, and that is larger than the whole global crypto world is sitting on the blockchain,” Stevens said.
He made this remark while on the third day at the Macquarie Technology Summit. He revealed that the ASX’s strategy regarding data handling has more to do with how the ecosystem interacts with itself rather than consumer-facing tasks. He noted that the ASX is concerned about making it a collaborative ecosystem of data.
The ASX has been using the Clearing House Electronic Subregister System, or CHESS. The move to the blockchain-based system is to increase the clearing and settlement speed and reduce counterparty risk.
Crypto market down by nearly 50% from all-time high
The cryptocurrency market has lost nearly 50% of its value since it reached an all-time high a few weeks ago. The total crypto market cap reached its peak of $2.6 trillion on May 14. However, at the time of this report, the total market cap stands just above $1.3 trillion.
Bitcoin and the other major cryptocurrencies have recorded massive losses since the bearish cycle kicked in. Bitcoin is currently trading at $33k per coin, down from its all-time high price above $64k. Ether has also slipped below $2,000.
Despite the decline in prices, analysts are still unsure if the bear market has kicked in or if the market is reacting to negative regulations coming from the likes of China.
