According to @business, the Reserve Bank of Australia said the operator of Australia’s largest stock exchange has considerable work to do to meet regulator expectations. Source: Bloomberg Business. The exchange operator is ASX Limited, whose ASX Clear and ASX Settlement facilities came under heightened scrutiny after the CHESS replacement project was paused in 2022. Source: Reserve Bank of Australia and ASIC joint statement, November 2022. The RBA’s 2023 assessment outlined governance and project-risk remediation requirements and set milestones for the ASX clearing and settlement facilities. Source: Reserve Bank of Australia 2023 Assessment of the ASX Clearing and Settlement Facilities. For trading, sustained regulatory oversight of ASX market infrastructure is a key operational risk factor to monitor for execution quality and liquidity in Australian equities and ETFs. Source: Reserve Bank of Australia 2023 Assessment of the ASX Clearing and Settlement Facilities. For crypto exposure, spot Bitcoin ETFs listed on ASX, including the VanEck Bitcoin ETF VBTC, rely on the same trading and settlement rails, making the RBA’s findings relevant for monitoring market functioning. Source: VanEck Australia press release on VBTC launch, June 20, 2024; Reserve Bank of Australia 2023 Assessment of the ASX Clearing and Settlement Facilities.

According to @BitMEXResearch, Bitfinex Securities is expanding its Real World Asset (RWA) offerings with two new tokenized products in the UK, contrasting with the institutional trend led by firms like BlackRock. The first product, "TITAN1," offers investors a 20% annual dividend by investing in community banking debt, while "TITAN2" provides a 50% share of proceeds from litigation financing. Both tokens are issued on the Liquid Network, a Bitcoin (BTC) sidechain, making alternative investments accessible to a broader audience. Jesse Knutson of Bitfinex Securities emphasized that their goal is true disintermediation to fill capital gaps left by traditional banks, unlike institutional RWA products that often replicate existing financial structures. In separate news, Australia’s Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) has initiated an inquiry into the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) following the costly failure of its blockchain-based CHESS settlement system upgrade in 2022. The probe addresses ongoing concerns about the exchange's operational stability and risk management. This development highlights the regulatory and execution risks associated with large-scale blockchain implementations in traditional finance. Market data indicates a slight bearish sentiment, with Bitcoin (BTC) down approximately 0.65% and Ethereum (ETH) down 1.05% against USDT in the last 24 hours.