The ASX (Australian Securities Exchange) Is Considering Listing Tokenised Real World Assets
Mitchell Nixon
ASX’s Chief Information Officer, Dan Chesterman, stated that for a tokenised asset to be considered for listing in the future, it must be supported by appropriate backing. He emphasised that while this requirement is essential, there is a definite possibility of such assets being listed at a later time.
However, he mentioned that the ASX could potentially list a tokenised real-world asset, such as gold, as long as it is “appropriately backed.”
In an interview with Cointelegraph, Chesterman explained that while there are challenges involved in listing a cryptocurrency directly, the ASX remains open to the idea of listing tokenized assets tied to real-world items.
“There’s been, in the past, challenges associated with getting to the stage we could directly list a cryptocurrency mainly because it doesn’t meet a lot of the listing rules,” Chesterman said.
“Could I imagine us potentially, in the end, having a tokenised product listed on us? Absolutely.”
Based on a report by Yahoo Finance on March 28, the ASX currently holds the position of the 16th largest stock exchange globally in terms of market capitalisation.
As of the first quarter of 2023, data from the Australian Securities and Investment Commission indicates that the ASX contributes to approximately 82% of the total dollar turnover in local equity market products. This information highlights the significance of the ASX in the domestic market.
Dan Chesterman’s perspective on blockchain is in line with previous statements made by prominent banking executives. These executives have emphasised the evolving narrative around blockchain, focusing on its role as a driver of efficiency.
“The experimentation with blockchain is not going away in large banks and large institutions,” said Howard Silby, chief innovation officer at National Australia Bank (NAB).
“There’s a lot of high friction high-value customer processes that remain a very ripe area of innovation.”
Per CoinTelegraph, Sophie Gilder, the Managing Director of Blockchain and Digital Assets at Commonwealth Bank, expresses the view that the tokenisation of assets and the implementation of smart payments have the potential to bring about substantial efficiencies, as well as mitigate risks and reduce costs.
“In the current market, it’s harder to talk about the upside of digital assets. Instead, I think it’s more about efficiency, and there’s a lot to be gained there,” Gilder said.
“So we’ve moved from irrational exuberance, which actually was not great for the market apart from, perhaps attracting capital, to a focus now on what is the add-on utility.”
It seems the Commonwealth Bank of Australia has a pretty stern outlook on cryptocurrencies, given they just restricted their customers on depositing to cryptocurrency exchanges.
You can read more about that here.
Chesterman emphasised that the decision should not be perceived as a “rejection” of blockchain technology.
“Our decision to pause was based on our assessment that we were seeing some delays occurring and reoccurring and we didn’t want to go through a process where there was a prolonged and ongoing delay, and that would have an impact on our customers,” he said.
“We made a very deliberate decision […] to pause in order to not create an ongoing state of uncertainty.”
According to Chesterman, the exchange maintains its collaboration with Digital Assets, an infrastructure company, for the development platform Synfini based on blockchain technology.
Given the cryptocurrency space, and particularly, Bitcoin is heating up across the world in Hong Kong, Spain and the US, Australia would not want to be left behind on this front.