The president and CEO of Nasdaq Inc., Adena Friedman, recently said in an interview that cryptocurrency are at “the height of a hype cycle” and can become a “financial element of the Internet.” She said that Nasdaq has been monitoring the disruptive technology’s activities since its emergence in the mainstream market.
The stock exchange giant is apparently doing a study that will determine the best time for the corporation to commit to cryptocurrencies or if it should involve itself at all. Early this year, Nasdaq announced that they may offer bitcoin futures which will be different from the one being offered by CME and CBOE. Commenting on it, she said:
“We are continuing to investigate the idea of cryptocurrency futures (contract) with a partner and we continue to look at the risk management around that, making sure we are putting the right protocols in place, making sure there’s proper demand, and that the contract is different from what’s already out there.”
Friedman said that cryptocurrency is currently at “the height of a hype cycle,” as evidenced by its explosive entrance into varying sectors. She predicted that once digital currency matures, it will provide a smoother means of conducting commerce. However, the CEO did admit that she doesn’t know which cryptocurrency will establish it with solid efficiency and scalability, but added that over time “there will be that utility.”
She was not very positive on blockchain also. She said though the technology is interesting, at the present time it is not scaleable enough to support their demand. However, she recognized the importance of using blockchain in the place of paper records for better security.
Friedman said.
“There are massive inefficiencies where there is paper instead of automation, where there’s really poor record keeping and everything’s in a drawer somewhere, like private securities. So we have to deploy blockchain into the private market, where you can find really long settlement cycles, and how blockchain can shorten those.”
In April, NASDAQ announced that it would be open to launching a cryptocurrency exchange in the future as the regulatory environment evolves.
Within less than a month, the first cryptocurrency exchange powered by NASDAQ will be introduced next month. Though there are a huge number of players on the market, a new exchange called DX.Exchange will be quite a different player.
