NASDAQ plans to expand into the crypto market, indicating the tremendous adoption growth that digital assets continue to experience. NASDAQ is one of the significant US equities exchanges. The fact that it is considering entering the crypto industry indicates that major financial institutions are not worried about the recent crypto crash.
The exchange has recently announced that it would start with providing custody services for institutional investors first and will have to follow up plans to allow for the trading of digital assets. By doing this, speculators believe this will bring a new influx of capital to crypto, which could reverse the current bear market.
NASDAQ is not the only traditional Wall Street company expanding into digital assets recently.
Learn More About NASDAQ Crypto Trading
Crypto Is Making Headlines
So far, during the crypto bear market, the overall market cap has fallen from around $3 trillion to roughly less than $1 trillion. However, the fact that this has not deterred investors may indicate that many believe in the industry’s long-term potential. For example, BlackRock had recently announced a new spot Bitcoin private trust to its clients through a new partnership with the popular crypto exchange Coinbase.
Crypto has also even become a traditional retirement account in recent years. Fidelity had announced that it would now allow its customers to add crypto to their overall 401(k) retirement portfolios. This announcement sparked much controversy among regulators. Many claimed that the assets were too volatile for a retirement account.
NASDAQ Crypto Trading Security Measures
With this announcement comes popular support for the move as many believe in giving freedom for investors to allocate their capital to what they wish.
NASDAQ’s recent move to add crypto trading to its extensive list of services indicates that this may be the new trend for traditional exchanges to somehow incorporate digital assets into their businesses. The company says that providing custodial services first will be the foundation to set up the company to provide trading services. Ultimately, executives believe that blockchain technology and digital assets are transformative for a wide range of businesses, especially for finance.
NASDAQ may also help solve a lot of the pain points that current crypto investors have, which is the general lack of security that is usually associated with crypto. Last year, around $14 billion of crypto was used for illegal activity, and the number is expected to increase as the industry expands. NASDAQ is a company that has seasoned experience in providing financial crime software and preventing market abuse, this could help bring additional security to the crypto markets. As a result, this would be a net positive benefit for all crypto investors, which is definitely needed if the crypto markets continue to expand in the upcoming years.