Germany’s joint stock company Deutsche Börse (DB) has established a dedicated unit for blockchain and crypto assets.
The new “DLT, Crypto Assets and New Market Structures” unit will comprise a 24-person team led by Jens Hachmeister, and will explore the disruptive potential the technology could have for financial markets infrastructure, as well as the new products DB could develop to enhance its existing offerings.
Hachmeister noted that blockchain could innovate and streamline many traditional segments across DB’s value chain, including functions such as pre-IPO listing, trading and clearing, settlement and custody, and could even be of service for DB’s financial data and analytics arm.
He said that DB’s move is driven by shifting currents in the financial landscape:
“The digital economy in general is heading for decentralisation. In [the] future, there will be more peer-to-peer governed marketplaces and less intermediaries. In that regard, blockchain has the potential to disrupt the capital markets infrastructure.”
