Corporate bond trading platform LedgerEdge has entered administration just a year after its launch.
David Baxendale and Edward Macnamara of PwC have been appointed as joint administrators with the goal of exploring additional interest in the business and its assets.
Founded by former R3 CEO David Rutter, LedgerEdge aimed to leverage a combination of blockchain technology, artificial intelligence, and secure enclave computing to enhance liquidity and price discovery in the secondary market for corporate bonds. Despite gaining significant support from buy-side clients, the firm faced challenges in attracting sell-side clients.
In a statement to media outlet The Desk, Rutter cited the “extremely challenging funding environment” as a key factor in the company’s closure.
LedgerEdge was licensed as a multilateral trading facility in the UK and received approval from the SEC and Finra as a broker-dealer and alternative trading system in the US.