RIYADH: The US stock exchange, known as Nasdaq, will initially offer custody services for Bitcoin and Ether to institutional investors, the company’s executive vice president and head of North American markets, Tal Cohen, said.
This happens as the second-largest stock exchange in the world prepares to gain advantage from the increasing appetite for digital currencies among big-money investors, according to Bloomberg.
The company has hired Ira Auerbach to lead the new Nasdaq Digital Assets unit.
“Custody is foundational,” Cohen said in an interview. “Off the back of custody, we can start to develop other solutions, offer execution services, liquidity services, and think about how we support new markets.”
He added that although Nasdaq has no immediate plans to launch a crypto exchange, it will assess the opportunity based on the regulatory environment and competitive landscape.
In a similar move, BlackRock has partnered with Coinbase Global to facilitate Bitcoin trading for investors.
Additionally, EDX Markets, a new exchange backed by Charles Schwab Corp., Fidelity Digital Assets, Citadel Securities and Virtu Financial, will be trading some tokens this year.
“We believe this next wave of the revolution is going to be driven by mass institutional adoption,” Auerbach said in an interview.