Deutsche Boerse Purchases Minority Share in Blockchain Partner HQLAx

Germany’s joint stock company Deutsche Boerse (DB) has furthered its partnership with blockchain-based liquidity provider HQLAx, making a million euro investment to become a minority shareholder, a press release announces Tuesday, August 28.

Deutsche Boerse AG is a German marketplace organizer and transaction services provider which had as much as €3.695 billion ($4.327 billion) in total equity as of 2015.

The two parties, which originally partnered in March to produce a blockchain-based securities lending platform using R3 Consortium’s Corda technology, said the move allowed them to expand their activities in the field.

“This partnership gives us the opportunity to develop a blockchain-based solution for post-trading,” Philippe Seyll, responsible for DB’s global securities lending activities commented.

“Our aim is to work together with like-minded partners such as HQLAx to create a standardized market for securities lending.”

DB will also gain a two-man presence on HQLAx’s board, something which together with the investment the latter describes as a “big step forward.”

As Cointelegraph reported in March, DB board member Jeffrey Tessler denied that blockchain or cryptocurrency businesses would be involved in creating the product.

Nonetheless, in May, the company said it was “deep at work” getting to grips with the fundamental principles of Bitcoin, potentially with an eye to some form of integration at a later date.