According to a fresh press release, Deutsche Börse – the German marketplace organizer for trading securities and shares – has now established a dedicated division to deal with cryptocurrencies and potential applications for blockchain technology.

Specifically, this new unit is said to be dedicated to ”DLT, Crypto Assets and New Market Structures” and comes as part of a broader strategy by Deutsche Börse to examine blockchain technology.

According to the firm’s official statement, it has actively been exploring different applications of blockchain technology in the past.

Jens Hachmeister, who will coordinate the 24-person blockchain department, stated that ”Deutsche Börse has been active with the technology in the first phase of ideation and exploration.”

Moreover, he added that ”[we] invested in various initiatives to create a sound understanding of the trends, the technology and its potential within the traditional segments of our value chain.”

Nonetheless, Hachmeister also stressed that although Deutsche Börse has been exploring the technology, they realized they needed a ”centrally steered approach […] to make a greater impact” as well as to unlock the full potential of the technology.

Hachmeister suggested that blockchain technology could potentially be used in a wide variety of Deutsche Bank’s day-to-day operations, with possible applications within trading and clearing, settlements and custody, naming pre-IPO and listing, as well as within data analytics.

Moreover, Deutsche Börse has also been cooperating with ”international central securities depositories on the use of distributed ledgers and smart contracts for mobilizing scarce collateral, as well as the joint development of a functional prototype for the blockchain technology-based settlement of securities with the Deutsche Bundesbank.”

The German exchange also revealed that it had acquired a minority stake in HQLAx, which is a liquidity and collateral management outfit that is developing a blockchain-powered model intended for securities lending.

This, however, did not come out of the blue – as Deutsche Börse initially revealed its planned cooperation with HQLAx in March, saying the firms would jointly develop a securities lending model and explore blockchain technology on the R3 Corda platform.

This expanded relationship with HQLAx could become even more important in the light of Deutsche Börse’s newly announced new unit dedicated to blockchain technology.

It remains to be seen what exactly comes of it, but the mere fact that Deutsche Börse is deeming blockchain important enough for its organizational needs to warrant a central unit to coordinate blockchain exploration is an intriguing notion.

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