Former senior JPMorgan Chase & Co. executive Blythe Mastersis heading a cryptocurrency startup that aims to overhaul the waytraded assets are settled and recorded.

Masters, who helped develop credit-default swaps two decadesago, was named Tuesday as the chief executive officer of DigitalAsset Holdings LLC. The New York-based company plans to usebitcoins and blockchain technology for settlement andrecord-keeping of the likes of stocks, mortgages, or loans.

Bitcoins are part of an anonymous, decentralized networkprotected by cryptographic codes that works outside the bankingsystem. Computers communicate with one another to verifytransactions on bitcoin's public ledger, called the blockchain.Cryptocurrencies have been criticized for their potential inillicit deals and are known for their embrace by libertarians.

Digital Asset's vision is to keep the speed and digitalefficiencies of bitcoin and blockchain while adding a layer ofdisclosure that would reassure Wall Street banks and regulators.The venue will provide a closed system that only vetted members canuse.

“Trading takes place at warp speed—settlement doesn't,” Masterssaid in an interview. Masters, who rose from a JPMorgan intern toglobal head of its commodities arm over 27 years, stepped down fromthe New York-based bank last year after completing the sale ofunits she oversaw.

Helping Banks

Digital Asset's aim isn't to cut out such banks from trading andsettlement processes, but to improve their back-office operations,in which settlement cycles can take more than 20 days for someassets, she said.

The company has reached out to regulators, Masters said. DigitalAsset has about 10 employees spread across Chicago, New York, andTel Aviv. The company was founded last year by Don Wilson, founderand chief executive of DRW Trading Group, and Sunil Hirani, CEO ofTrueEX LLC.

“Blythe's unique vision, leadership qualities, and dynamism werethe key ingredients that we looked for in a CEO to help re-inventthe aging, costly, and hack-prone legacy processes andinfrastructure of settlement services,” Hirani said in a statementfrom Digital Asset.

Masters rose to prominence in the 1990s after helping developcredit swaps, the derivatives that enable investors to hedge riskson bonds. She ran several credit desks and became the investmentbank's chief financial officer before being named to run thecommodities business in late 2006.

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