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

Australian Securities and Investments Commission appoints former central bank deputy governor to a three-member expert panel to investigate the ASX’s failed blockchain project worth over $160 million.

According to a recent report by Reuters, one of the members of the three-member expert panel is former central bank deputy governor Guy Debelle. The panel is tasked to investigate the Australian Securities Exchange’s failed blockchain project that was worth approximately $163.1 million.

Aside from Debelle, ASIC also appointed non-executive director of the Commonwealth Bank Rob Whitfield as panel chair. On the other hand, non-executive director of Australian firms AGL and Collins Foods, Christine Holman, will be joining the panel as a member.

According to ASIC, the inquiry panel will be asked to provide recommendations and identify any shortcomings or insufficiencies within the ASX management. These could include deficiencies in its governance, capability and risk management that could have led to the blockchain project failing.

Moreover, the panel is also expected to submit a report to the ASIC by March 31, 2026. The report should consist of the team’s findings and recommendations for further steps that regulators must take regarding the investigation.

In an emailed response to Reuters, ASX said that it would welcome the regulator’s announcement and vowed to engage “constructively” with the panel members throughout the investigation.

What was the failed ASX blockchain project?

ASX first began the project to revamp its current trading platform , which is known as the Clearing House Electronic Subregister System or CHESS, by incorporating back in 2015. Under the leadership of then-CEO Elmer Funke Kupper, ASX signed on New York-based startup Digital Asset Holdings to begin working on the blockchain-centered project.

However overtime, people involved in the project started pointing out concerns that digital assets at the time still lacked market support and that ASX had enlisted the help of the New York startup without properly testing the product’s scalability.

It wasn’t until November 2024 when the ASX decided to abandon the project entirely, stating “citing dysfunctional management, concerns about the product’s complexity and scalability, and difficulty finding experts to support it” as the reason behind the axing. The project was estimated to cost around 245 million AUD to $255 million AUD (around $164 million to $171 million).

According to Reuters, the project’s failure had fractured public trust in the stock exchange as more than a dozen brokers and other market participants and people directly involved in the blockchain project criticized it.