NASDAQ CEO Open to Crypto and NASDAQ Collaborating with Gemini

NASDAQ is Bullish on Crypto, And That is Mostly Good News

NASDAQ CEO Adena Friedman said the exchange was open to becoming a platform for trading cryptos once regulation was ironed out. NASDAQ also announced they will be collaborating with Gemini in the meantime. Gemini being the Winklevoss’ crypto exchange.

From many perspectives is great news, as the NASDAQ is one of the leading U.S. stock exchanges and its CEO being bullish on the future of cryptocurrency is a big deal in terms of mass crypto sentiment and adoption. In this respect, both the Gemini news and the ideas expressed by Friedman are pretty positive for the crypto space.

On the other hand, I could see some being skeptical over the implications of this. That being, the implication that the current crypto market is not regulated well enough, and more regulation is needed (and perhaps even expected). This idea has been being expressed more and more recently and all signs are pointing toward it.

Regulation is a thorny issue in crypto. On the one hand people like the degree to which cryptocurrency is decentralized and democratically controlled; on the other hand there is a cross-section of people (state officials and some crypto users) who would probably welcome a few regulations to limit the worst practices in crypto. Few are in favor of pump and dump groups, Bitconnect, and the scam ICOs.

Anyway, wants and wishes aren’t the point here. The point is that interest in cryptocurrency is growing, and this is true to such an extent that one of the world’s leading stock exchanges is moving into the crypto space. However, as the crypto space grows, we can expect regulation. And that, of course, presents its own set of issues.

For the full story and a video, see CNBC’s Nasdaq is open to becoming cryptocurrency exchange, CEO says.