New Blockchain Venture Targets High-Speed Securities Settlement

A new blockchain technology venture, headed by the founder of pan-European equities platform Chi-X, plans to deploy an infrastructure that will rapidly speed up securities settlement.

The new venture, called SETL, will enable market participants to move cash and assets directly between each other, and to facilitate the final settlement of transactions.

SETL is led by Peter Randall, former CEO and founder of Chi-X, and Anthony Culligan, founder of peer-to-bitcoin trading site Roolo.

According to the firm, the SETL infrastructure has demonstrated speeds of up to 5,000 transactions per second in tests, and expects to reach speeds of 100,000 transactions per second when it goes live. This makes the settlement of transactions 1,000 times faster than the type that supports bitcoin.

“Clearing and settlement processes are fragmented, cumbersome, costly and in need of technological innovation and simplification. We are currently in discussion with a number of first tier institutions who are looking to commercialise blockchain technology,” says Randall.

“Our aim is to be platform, exchange, currency and asset agnostic. When you have agreed a transaction, SETL will be the way to simultaneously move the consideration and the asset as well as provide a ‘golden record’ of the transaction.”