The London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG.L), one of the oldest stock exchanges in the world, is reportedly planning to offer blockchain-based trading of traditional financial assets. According to the Financial Times, the company has reached an inflection point and is now taking plans forward. Head of Capital Markets Murray Ross told FT that the project does not involve cryptocurrencies and only uses the blockchain technology to make buying, selling, and holding of traditional assets more efficient. The idea is to use digital technology to make a process that is slicker, smoother, cheaper, and more transparent…and to have it regulated, Ross said.
A blockchain is a distributed, immutable ledger, facilitating record of transactions and tracking assets in a business network. The LSE Group is reportedly considering a separate entity for the blockchain-based markets business and is in talks with regulators, multiple jurisdictions, and the U.K. government and Treasury. The move comes as several traditional finance firms look to come on chain to offer tokenized versions of traditional assets like gold and U.S. Treasury notes.