Adena Friedman, president and CEO of Nasdaq Inc., says that cryptocurrency “deserves an
opportunity to find a sustainable future in our economy,” in a post
on LinkedIn, published Jan. 20.
Writing ahead of her appearance at the World Economic Forum at
Davos this week — the opening day of which is today, Jan. 22 —
Friedman stated that Nasdaq believes crypto will have a role in the
future, characterizing “the invention itself [as] a tremendous
demonstration of genius and creativity.”
Thus far, she argued, crypto has evolved through what she terms
a “classic invention lifecycle” — from its early path forged by
pioneers in cryptography and economics, to a period of hype, the
proliferation of new market entrants, and now, most recently, “a
dose of reality.” Crypto thus stands at a crossroads, she says,
poised between one of two outcomes:
“1) Either the innovation finds practical utility
followed by years of steady and sustainable commercial progress and
integration into the economic fabric (e.g., the Internet); or
2) The invention fails to achieve broad adoption and
its commercial applications as medium of exchange are limited
(e.g., the Segway).”
The CEO argued that for crypto to evolve into a practical,
useable invention with stable value it requires “governance and
regulatory clarity.” She also suggested that both of these are, at
their core, “antithetical to the original intent [of] a
decentralized, ungovernable global currency.”
Remarking on the need for a transparent and fair crypto exchange
market in particular, Friedman noted that Nasdaq has provided its
in-house technology to help start-up exchanges forge best
practices.
As reported, Nasdaq has provided its SMARTS Market
Surveillance Technology to major industry participants such as the
Winklevoss twins’ Gemini exchange, which enables the platform to monitor
suspicious trade behavior in a bid to prevent market
manipulation.
Earlier this month, DX Exchange, a platform that uses uses
Nasdaq’s Financial Information Exchange (FIX), launched trading of
cryptocurrencies and tokenized traditional stocks.
In December, ErisX, an institutional marketplace for crypto spot
and futures, raised $27.5 million from Nasdaq
Ventures and Fidelity Investments.