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Making a huge investment decision during a bear market typically implies that a company believes in that project and in the industry as a whole. Well, Nasdaq seems to have a lot of faith in the cryptocurrency industry as it is moving on with its plans to launch Bitcoin Futures amid the bearish market. A while ago, Nasdaq entered into partnership with VanEck to launch Bitcoin futures. The product one of the largest stock exchanges in the United States is going to launch is just one of the many BTC derivatives that will be released in the first half of 2019.
Nasdaq Moves Ahead With Its Plans To Launch Bitcoin Futures
According to the director of digital asset strategy at VanEck, Gabor Gurbacs, all plans to launch Bitcoin Futures by the first half of 2019 are still in place. He made the statement during the Consensus: Invest conference. Both companies will produce a regulated crypto 2.0. futures contract that is different from anything we already have.
Apart from Nasdaq, NYSE, the parent company of Intercontinental Exchange will also be releasing a Bitcoin Futures contract in January.
Two cryptocurrency futures products have already been approved by the CFTC. One for CBOE and another for CME. These derivatives fell to their lowest points since inception this week when the price of Bitcoin fell.
According to Gurbacs, Nasdaq took extra precautions with the CFTC to make new standards for surveillance and custody. Custody and surveillance are the two main issues Jay Clayton, the Chairman of the SEC, talked about last week. According to him, better standards need to be put in place for the protection of investors before he will be comfortable with giving exchanges approval for ETF.
VanEck, on the other hand, has been trying to get the SEC’s approval to launch the first ever Bitcoin ETF. Several applications have been rejected by the SEC from different companies including one from the Winklevoss twins. The SEC rejected these applications because they are convinced that the market is still highly prone to manipulation. So, they have to protect investors until a more solid framework is put in place. In January, the SEC published a paper explaining why it has refused to approve any Bitcoin ETF so far. The paper stated that the protection of investors must be guaranteed before they can approve it.
The CEO of Nasdaq, Adena Friedman, during an interview with CNBC, said that they are studying the cryptocurrency industry closely as they wait for it to mature. Once it does, they will be ready to offer a trading platform for cryptocurrencies like BTC. In his words:
“For a certainty, Nasdaq is going to consider becoming a cryptocurrency exchange in time. When we think it’s time, and we believe people are ready for a regulated market, we will be ready to provide something that gives investors a fair experience.”
Source: SMARTEREUM (https://smartereum.com/44017/bitcoin-futures-amid-bearish-pressure-nasdaq-moves-on-with-plans-to-launch-bitcoin-futures-btc-news-today/)