(Bloomberg) — Digital Asset Holdings LLC announced two acquisitions meant to help the startup run by former JPMorgan Chase & Co. executive Blythe Masters overhaul how Wall Street settles trades.
The company bought San Francisco-based Hyperledger and Budapest-based Bits of Proof for undisclosed amounts, according to a statement Thursday. Several employees of both firms will join Digital Asset, with Hyperledgers chief executive officer becoming Digital Assets chief marketing officer.
Hyperledger and Bits of Proof add valuable new dimensions to our product offering and great talent to our team, Masters, the CEO of Digital Asset, said in the statement.
Firms including Digital Asset and Symbiont want to use blockchain — a software ledger first developed to serve as the underpinnings of the digital currency called bitcoin — to reduce how long it takes to settle trades in financial markets like bonds and derivatives.
Hyperledger has developed a way for financial firms to create private blockchain networks where the participants are known to each other, according to the statement. That differs from the bitcoin blockchain where users are anonymous. Bits of Proof is a software company.
Several large investors have expressed an interest in giving funding to Digital Asset, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the negotiations are private. A transaction may happen in the third quarter, the person said.
