The Australian regulator has filed a lawsuit against the country's stock exchange for a failed blockchain upgrade

According to the Financial Times, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) said in a lawsuit filed on Wednesday that the board and management of the ASX (Australian Securities Exchange) had suffered a "collective failure" in managing the upgrade of its blockchain-based platform. The upgrade project was initially billed as a leading blockchain initiative but was abandoned in November 2022 after seven years of development. The failed upgrade sparked criticism of the ASX from the banking industry, government and the RBA.
In its lawsuit, ASIC cited a February 2022 statement from ASX indicating that the blockchain upgrade was going well and was scheduled to go live in April 2023. However, just six weeks later, ASX said the upgrade could be delayed and commissioned consultancy Accenture to conduct a review. Accenture's review found that the project was only 63 percent complete. ASIC alleged that the February update was "misleading and deceptive" because ASX did not have a reasonable basis to claim that the upgrade was going well.