Digital Asset Holdings (DAH), the Blockchain technology startup led by former JPMorgan executive Blythe Masters, is reportedly looking to raise $25 million.
According to New York Post, informed sources say that Masters is looking to connections from Wall Street for the funding. The round, which would be the startup's first, is "ongoing", according to the sources.
Masters joined the newly-formed startup as CEO earlier this year, looking to make another major impact on Wall Street. She is known as the creator of credit default swaps, derivatives designed to hedge against bad loans but whose apparent misuse turned them into "financial weapons of mass destruction" during the 2008 financial crisis. She later headed JPMorgan's commodities business, and left the bank last year.
With DAH, Masters is looking to revolutionize the way securities are settled through the adaptation of blockchain technology. A distributed ledger system can potentially save billions in costs traditionally incurred during the settlement process, and eliminate counterparty risk, errors and lengthy clearing lead times.
Dozens of banks have been researching how such technology can be integrated, and many have begun clustering into startup-led consortiums that would standardize the technology across the industry.
DAH is proposing shared replicated ledgers and tokenization for securities settlements, syndicated loans and other use cases. In June, it 'aquired' two blockchain tech startups.
If achieved, the funding would be one of the largest in the nascent discipline, and further signal the shift of investor interest from Bitcoin 's currency to blockchain and analogous distributed ledger technologies. Last month, blockchain tech startup Chain secured $30 million, the largest round for any company in the crypto industry since April.
