Nasdaq Interested in Deploying Its Platforms for Crypto

The U.S. stock exchange company Nasdaq wants to bring its vast experience to bear on the burgeoning cryptoasset industry, Bloomberg reported today (Nov 1st) citing an unpublished internal document.

Discussing the possibility of using its expertise to detect market manipulation, and “other scams,” the company referenced its ability to comply with the industry standard of:

surveillance teams that monitor activity constantly and advanced technologies to help capture and analyze abusive behaviors including pump-and-dump schemes, insider trading, wash trading as well as spoofing and layering.

A recent report by the Attorney General of New York on the state of cryptoasset exchanges revealed a great variance in the maturity of the exchanges surveyed, and detailed a long road to what it would consider acceptable. Nasdaq’s suite of tools would presumably help cryptoasset exchanges move toward institutional standards.

Nasdaq and Microsoft

As CryptoGlobe reported last month, Nasdaq has been allegedly flirting with the idea of listing cryptoassets itself, on its own exchange, starting next year. The company already supports the Gemini cryptoasset exchange with its technology, and this summer the company held a closed-door meeting to discuss the emerging asset class. On that occasion Nasdaq’s CEO, Adena Friedman, said that cryptocurrencies are “the right next step in the space of currency.”

In this vein, CryptoGlobe also reported today on Nasdaq’s just announced partnership with Microsoft, in which Nasdaq will integrate Microsoft’s Azure Blockchain into its Financial Framework. This partnership will prepare Nasdaq to integrate other blockchain platforms into its own software.

Institutions coming to crypto

This activity comes as the institutional interest in cryptoassets continues to grow. Notably, Bakkt bitcoin futures contracts are slated to go live on December 12th, opening the doors for institutional finance to invest freely on a U.S. government-regulated exchange. These contracts will be physically-settled, meaning buyers can actually obtain the private keys to their bitcoin.

This will mean more business for Nasdaq, already “getting approached every week or two” by new firms wanting to get involved in the cryptoasset industry, according to a source quoted by Bloomberg.