Share this article
Euroclear to Develop Blockchain Gold Settlement System
Clearing and settlement leader Euroclear has announced its first partnership with a blockchain industry business.
By Pete Rizzo
Updated Sep 11, 2021, 12:20 p.m. Published Jun 21, 2016, 3:40 p.m.
Make us preferred on Google
Clearing and settlement services firm Euroclear has announced its first partnership with a blockchain industry business.
Belgium-based Euroclear revealed today it would partner with bitcoin exchange and blockchain services provider itBit to develop a system for settling gold trades. The project is aimed at reducing risk and increasing asset mobility and liquidity in the London gold market, and will find the two firms working in tandem to develop a "next-generation settlement service" that could be launched as soon as next year.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
As part of the deal, Euroclear will act as the regulated entity for the planned product, while itBit will serve as a technology provider.
In interview, Euroclear product strategy and innovation lead Angus Scott described the effort as one of the first to seek to settle real assets using blockchain tech. However, he said that the project was attractive to Euroclear due to the fact it is in line with the company’s broader goal of pursuing efficiency.
Scott told CoinDesk:
“It’s a very genuine product. It’s one we’d be looking at irrespective of blockchain. Essentially we’ll take a lot of transactional friction out, create a common data set. The hypothesis we’re testing is that this is generally more efficient.”
Scott went on to discuss the wider emphasis that UK regulators have put on supporting improvements to the country’s financial infrastructure, which he said had a positive impact on Euroclear’s decision to move forward on the proposal.
He further pointed to the steps the company has taken to research and investigate the opportunities blockchain could bring, a process he said ended with the conclusion that the technology could be "potentially fundamental" to Euroclear’s business.
Scott acknowledged that the project is an ambitious one, but said that Euroclear felt itBit was the best partner given what he called the company’s competency and experience in capital markets.
Scott concluded:
"It’s never easy to bring market infrastructure change. You have to get the regulation right, the legal structure right, and you have to get people to move."
Gold image via Shutterstock
More For You
KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.
What to know:
- KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025, equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per month, marking its strongest year on record.
- This performance translated into an all-time high share of centralised exchange volume, as KuCoin’s activity expanded faster than aggregate CEX volumes, which slowed during periods of lower market volatility.
- Spot and derivatives volumes were evenly split, each exceeding $500 billion for the year, signalling broad-based usage rather than reliance on a single product line.
- Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activity, reinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover.
- Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activity, indicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes.
More For You
Coreweave stock gains 9% on fresh $2 billion Nvidia investment
Already an investor in CoreWeave, Nvidia last September had agreed to purchase $6.3 billion of computing services from the AI infrastructure provider.
What to know:
- CoreWeave shares jumped about 9% in pre-market trading after Nvidia invested another $2 billion in the AI-focused cloud company.
- The new funding is intended to help CoreWeave expand to more than 5 gigawatts of AI-dedicated data centers by the end of the decade.
- The deal deepens a yearslong collaboration in which Nvidia and CoreWeave will align on hardware, software and data center strategy, and test CoreWeave’s Mission Control resource-scheduling platform for potential integration into Nvidia’s ecosystem.
Top Stories
