Gibraltar Stock Exchange forms joint venture with fintech firms to develop blockchain technologies

The Gibraltar Stock Exchange (GSX) has announced a joint venture with leading Asian fintech firms which will focus on developing new blockchain protocol to support issuance, trading, and clearing and settling of digital securities.

The GSX, together with Hong Kong publicly listed company Chong Sing Fintech Holdings Limited and blockchain development company Prime Fintech Co. Ltd., has announced the setting up of “Hashstacs Inc.”

“This joint venture represents a major step forward in realising the GSX vision to build a trusted global financial services group for the new digital era, facilitating more efficient scaling and deployment of solutions as the tokenisation of financial markets develops,” said Nick Cowan, Managing Director and Founder of GSX Limited.

According to the official release, Hashstacs Inc. will develop the GSX Group’s latest initiative – the Securities Trading Asset Classification Settlement (STACS) Protocol, a unique public/permissioned hybrid global blockchain that will support the issuance, trading, clearing and settling of digital securities.

Additional projects on the STACS Protocol will include the building of a new exchange trading platform for the GSX; further development of the Gibraltar Blockchain Exchange (GBX) trading platform (a subsidiary of the GSX); and creation of the Hashstacs Enterprise Wallet, a secure and scalable multi-signature cold hardware storage solution that will enhance the field of digital assets custody.

The STACS Protocol is designed to radically transform the capital markets with distributed ledger technology (DLT) while enforcing the best standards accepted by regulators in an open, transparent, and inclusive environment. The protocol seeks to encourage all stock exchanges, investment banks, brokers and dealers, and other qualified financial institutions to join for free as verified partners, while providing advantages to both issuers and investors globally.

“The GSX Group was an early supporter of the potential of DLT to provide issuers and investors with the ability to list and trade tokenised securities. The STACS Protocol is a significant development for the wider blockchain ecosystem, supporting the issuance, trading and settling of digital securities,” Cowan added.

“We encourage other institutions to capitalise on this opportunity and join the network of Verified Partners that we are already building to provide their services using the STACS Protocol.”