Rosherville Pty Ltd seeks Federal Court permission to sue former ASX directors and officers over the AUD 100M+ CHESS blockchain project collapse, months after the exchange paid a AUD 14.4M penalty for misleading conduct.
The Australian Securities Exchange is facing a fresh legal challenge over the blockchain project it abandoned three years ago. A shareholder called Rosherville Pty Ltd has told the exchange it plans to ask the Federal Court for permission to sue former officers and directors, according to an ASX update Wednesday.
Rosherville wants to bring a statutory derivative action under the Corporations Act. If the court grants permission, the shareholder would pursue the case on behalf of the exchange itself, rather than suing the exchange directly.
The ASX said Wednesday that no allegations have been made against the exchange as a company. The claims target former officials.
The exchange has not named which former leaders are involved or shared details of the alleged wrongdoing. The court has not yet ruled on whether the case can proceed.
The trouble stems from the CHESS replacement project. In 2016, the ASX began looking for a successor to its aging Clearing House Electronic Subregister System and picked a blockchain-based system built with Digital Asset.
By December 2017, the exchange was on track to become the first stock exchange globally to use blockchain for its core operations. That deadline passed without a launch.
The project faced repeated delays over the following years. In November 2022, the exchange suspended it completely after a review by ACN found serious problems with the system's design.
By May 2023, the ASX had dropped blockchain entirely and switched to a standard technology approach. The failed effort has cost more than AUD 100 million.
Regulators stepped in during August 2024. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission sued the exchange, claiming the ASX had no reasonable basis to tell the market in February 2022 that the project was progressing well. The regulator said the failure involved both the board and senior executives.
In June 2026, the exchange admitted to misleading conduct. The Federal Court ordered it to pay a AUD 14.4 million penalty in early July, plus AUD 2.1 million toward the regulator's legal costs.
That case closed weeks before Rosherville notified the ASX of its plan to pursue former officials. The shareholder's action targets individuals, not the exchange itself.
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