MENA-built digital asset exchange goes open source with atomic settlement model

A new digital asset exchange built in Egypt and developed in Motoko has been released as an open-source project, aiming to reshape how real-world assets such as cash, company shares and land titles are traded and settled.

The project, shared publicly via GitHub by ICP HUB Egypt in collaboration with Mercatura Forum and Menese Protocol, introduces a settlement design that executes payment and asset transfer in a single atomic step. If either side of a transaction fails, the trade is reversed entirely, removing the need for traditional clearinghouses and multi-day settlement cycles.

The exchange operates on Egypt-L1, described by its creators as a Byzantine fault tolerant network. The system is structured around a matching engine, a settlement core, asset ledgers and an audit layer, all designed to function without custodial intermediaries.

At the centre of the design is a delivery-versus-payment mechanism that holds both cash and assets in escrow momentarily before releasing them simultaneously. The developers say this removes exposure risks that typically exist in staggered settlement systems used in conventional markets.

The platform supports multiple asset classes including digital cash tokens, company equity and tokenised land titles. Each is handled through integrated ledger standards, with the same settlement logic applied across asset types.

The matching engine operates through batch auctions, where trades are grouped and cleared at a single price per cycle rather than executed continuously. According to the project documentation, this approach is intended to reduce latency-based trading advantages.

An on-chain registry governs which assets are eligible for trading, requiring issuers to be approved and assets to be properly funded before listing.

The project also includes a self-indexed ledger system that records transactions alongside cryptographic proofs, removing the need for separate indexing services. An internal audit mechanism based on Merkle Mountain Range structures allows independent verification of transaction history.

The team says the entire system is built without external cryptographic dependencies, relying on in-house implementations for core functions such as hashing and verification.

In a statement accompanying the release, contributors described the platform as an open infrastructure layer for financial markets that can be built on by developers globally.

The codebase is available publicly at Digital Asset Exchange GitHub.