Crypto’s criticism of traditional finance has often been rooted in ideology: banks act as gatekeepers, centralised institutions control access, and money should be able to move freely across open networks.
That argument carries greater weight when it comes from executives who have worked within the regulated financial system. Ault Blockchain is being developed in response to that tension, aiming to provide financial infrastructure that combines regulatory discipline with permissionless access.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) reported last year that nine of the biggest banks in the United States had restricted services for certain businesses that were operating legally. Digital asset companies were among those affected.
The situation has created a paradox for the crypto industry. Regulators have encouraged digital asset firms to adopt the standards associated with traditional financial institutions, including rigorous compliance procedures, audit trails and formal governance. Yet satisfying those requirements has not guaranteed continued access to fundamental banking services.
Ault Blockchain grew out of that frustration. The EVM-compatible Layer 1 is being developed by a subsidiary of NYSE-listed Hyperscale Data and was founded by Todd Ault, who experienced the difficulties of operating within regulated and publicly traded structures.
During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, one of Ault’s operating companies had its cash frozen and was given 30 days to secure a new banking relationship.
For an operator with interests spanning Bitcoin mining, digital infrastructure and public markets, the experience highlighted a clear distinction. Compliance with the rules does not necessarily mean an organisation has permissionless access to financial services if a private intermediary can remove that access at its discretion.
That idea is now central to Ault Blockchain’s development strategy.
While many new Layer 1 networks focus their marketing on faster transactions and greater throughput, Ault Blockchain is taking a finance-first approach. Its infrastructure is designed around trading, settlement and the tokenisation of real-world assets.
The network is built using the Cosmos SDK and Cosmos EVM, with CometBFT consensus. It is targeting block times of 200 milliseconds, or less than one second.
Its proposition extends beyond transaction speed. The network’s settlement layer is connected to dedicated trading through the Ault DEX, distribution through Ault Affiliates and community governance overseen by a Wyoming DAO LLC.
Ault Blockchain also intends to draw on the public-market audit and disclosure standards of its parent company, Hyperscale Data. Those principles are being incorporated directly into the technology in an effort to strengthen institutional confidence and embed compliance within the platform.
The project is not pursuing a conventional public token sale. Instead, $AULT is based on a deterministic, ten-year declining emissions schedule. That model rewards Licensed Mining Nodes for carrying out verifiable off-chain work, including oracle services, indexing and computing linked to artificial intelligence.
Ault Blockchain’s approach is based on the argument that permissionless finance does not have to operate anonymously or resemble a lawless “wild west”. The project believes financial platforms can meet legal standards while relying on infrastructure that cannot be arbitrarily disconnected because of a bank’s changing risk appetite.
Building such a system will be difficult, but Ault Blockchain is not attempting to reject everything associated with traditional finance. Its stated aim is to retain the strongest controls, remove dependence on vulnerable intermediaries and create more resilient financial infrastructure.
