World’s largest stock exchange, the NYSE, is planning to build a proper cryptocurrency trading platform for investors.
The New York Times has reported that the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and its parent company, the International Exchange (ICE) are currently working on a bitcoin (BTC) trading platform that would allow investors to directly buy and hold bitcoin without the involvement of futures, derivatives, or other kinds of contracts.
The news from the NYSE comes just days after a Goldman Sachs executive publicly confirmed that the bank intends to enter the Bitcoin market by launching a futures market ‘within weeks’. The executive, Rana Yared, said that despite the personal scepticism of the bank’s executives, Goldman Sachs plans to open a bitcoin trading unit to meet the growing demands from its investors and clients.
Days after Goldman Sachs’ confirmation, the NYTimes reported earlier today that several ‘emails and documents’ examined by Times reporters revealed that ICE is working on the development of an online bitcoin trading platform.
“The parent company of the New York Stock Exchange has been working on an online trading platform that would allow large investors to buy and hold Bitcoin, according to emails and documents viewed by The New York Times and four people briefed on the effort who asked to remain anonymous because the plans were still confidential,” The Times reported.
Later in April, NASDAQ CEO Adena Friedman, said that the exchange was open for becoming a crypto trading platform when the market becomes well regulated.
Bitcoin bites on Wall Street. Goldman Sachs took the plunge last week.
Goldman Sachs, CME Group, CBOE, and other financial institutions that have already integrated bitcoin onto their platforms or are planning for the future have either developed or are developing a futures market based on bitcoin. It’s important to note that none of the platforms deal with bitcoin directly. Essentially, Goldman Sachs will offer its clients contracts mimicking the value of bitcoin however the clients will not be able to hold or buy BTC directly.
Conversely, NYSE clients will be able to buy, sell, and hold bitcoin via the trading platform similar to
Coinbase and others.
Bithumb and other institutions also offer offline exchanges that allow large-scale investors to invest in bitcoin directly. However, these exchanges accept investments in large sums.
Coinbase Custody, Bithumb’s offline exchange, accepts bids larger than US$15 million.
The launch of the NYSE Bitcoin Exchange comes as a dramatic shift towards the mainstream. The world’s largest stock exchange, which settles trillions of dollars regularly, has opted for a crypto exchange thus proving the power and popularity of virtual currencies.
The bitcoin industry is growing at an exponential rate, attracting large institutional investors. In an interview with the NYTimes, founder and CEO of
LedgerX,
Paul Chou – who previously served as a Goldman Sachs executive, says bitcoin is facing unprecedented demands from large institutions for the first time in its history.
“The industry is seeing unprecedented institutional interest for the first time in Bitcoin’s history. I’ve been amazed that the strongest believers in cryptocurrency often start out the most skeptical. It’s a healthy skepticism. But at some point the perception shifts, and for many institutions? – ?I think we’re finally there,” Chou said.