ASX probe into $164m project failure deepens, Australian regulators assemble panel of experts: report

Australian Securities and Investments Commission appoints the former Central Bank deputy to a group of experts from three members to investigate the ASX faulty blockchain project worth more than $ 160 million.

According to a recent report By Reuters, one of the members of the expert panel of three members is former central bank Vice-Governor Guy Debelle. The panel is responsible for investigating the faulty project of the Australian EXCHANGE SECURITIES Blockchain, which was worth around $ 163.1 million.

Aside from Debelle, ASIC also appointed the non -executive director of the Commonwealth Rob Whitfield bank as president of the panel. On the other hand, the non -executive director of Australian companies AGL and Collins Foods, Christine Holman, will join the panel as a member.

According to AsicThe investigation committee will be invited to provide recommendations and identify any gap or insufficiency within ASX management. These could include gaps in its governance, its capacity and its risk management that could have led to the failure of the blockchain project.

In addition, the Committee should also submit a report to ASIC by March 31, 2026. The report should consist of the team’s conclusions and recommendations for other stages that regulators must take concerning the investigation.

In an email response to Reuters, ASX said that it would host the regulator’s announcement and undertake to commit “constructively” with the members of the panel throughout the investigation.

What was the faulty ASX blockchain project?

ASX first started the project to reorganize its current trading platform, known as the electronic sub-record system or failure of the compensation house, by incorporation In 2015. Under the direction of Elmer Funke Kupper, the Elmer of the time, ASX signed on the Startup Asset Holdings, based in New York, to start working on the blockchain project.

However, overtime, the people involved in the project began to highlight the concerns that digital assets at the time lacked market support and that Asx had called on New York startup without correctly testing the productive of the product.

It was not until November 2024 when the ASX decided to give up The project entirely, stating “citing dysfunctional management, concerns concerning the complexity and scalability of the product, and the difficulty in finding experts to support it” as the reason behind laundry. The project is expected to cost around 245 million Aud at $ 255 million AUD (around 164 million to $ 171 million).

According to Reuters, the failure of the project had fractured public confidence on the stock market, because more than a dozen brokers and other market players and people directly involved in the blockchain project criticized it.