Cryptocurrencies Rumoured To Be Added To NASDAQ Next Year

The world’s second-largest stock exchange, NASDAQ, is reported to be gearing up to not only list but support the trading of cryptocurrency via a coin exchange platform. While the CME and Cboe listed crypto-based financial products in the form of “bitcoin futures” in 2017, it is rumoured that NASDAQ will go one step further and list actual cryptocurrency. Plans for NASDAQ to list crypto futures were abandoned earlier in the year, but if the move to list cryptocurrency happens it will put the exchange at the forefront of traditional, institutional currency flowing into crypto. This will also set a precedent for the US Securities and Exchange Commission in being more receptive when it comes to greenlighting Electronically Traded Funds (ETF) applications. To date, the regulator’s main reason for rejecting license applications from various exchanges has been that there is no federally-operated exchange which currently lists bitcoin, or any other cryptocurrency for that matter. While NASDAQ has made no official announcement of its intention to list cryptocurrency, the exchange is known to have been doing research on digital currencies via collaborative efforts with a number of different crypto exchanges – most notably the Gemini exchange, which was spearheaded by the Winkelvoss twins. Speculation abounds that an increasingly close working relationship has been forged between Gemini and NASDAQ – a rumour which has been fuelled even further by the fact that Gemini has essentially doubled their number of employees in the space of a year. If true, it’s likely that NASDAQ will be the first stock exchange to list actual tokens, using Gemini’s technology to ensure that the listing is secure and functional. If the speculation is correct, it would pitch NASDAQ head-to-head against the ICE Bakkt collaboration in a race to become the first to offer institutionally-regulated crypto trading on an international platform.