Challenging funding environment pushes LedgerEdge into administration
London-based corporate bond trading platform LedgerEdge has gone into administration only three years after it was first established.
LedgerEdge goes into administration
On 1 August 2023, David Robert Baxendale and Edward John Macnamara were appointed as joint administrators of LedgerEdge to manage its affairs, business and property.
In a statement made to media outlet The Desk, the start-up’s founder David Rutter attributed its closure to the “extremely challenging funding environment”.
According to the company’s website, Rutter, who also founded the blockchain consortium R3, launched the company to “deliver nimble, fast and responsive client solutions” to help modernise and bring about “progression in the corporate bond market”.
Its concept combined artificial intelligence (AI) and distributed ledger technology (DLT) to offer traders “better connectivity, new liquidity opportunities and complete data control”.
Last year, LedgerEdge went live as a multilateral trading facility (MTF) in the UK after securing the approval of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Across the Atlantic, both the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had granted its US subsidiary, LedgerEdge Securities, the right to operate as a broker-dealer and as an Alternative Trading System (ATS).
Despite this, the tough conditions of the current market ultimately proved too much for the company to keep going. Perhaps with the natural passage of time, the company might be able to reimagine its position within the complex world of corporate bond trading once more.
