Last week, rumors circulated that Wall Street mainstay Nasdaq was moving forward with plans to launch a Bitcoin Futures trading desk operation in the future, despite continued price decline in cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin. Now, the rumors have been confirmed by Nasdaq’s vice president of communications, Joseph Christinat.

According to Christinat, much work has gone into the trading desk and the only remaining major hurdle is to receive approval from the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

“Bitcoin Futures will be listed and it should launch in the first half of next year – we’re just waiting for the go ahead from the CFTC but there’s been enough work put into this to make that academic,” Christinat explained.

“We’ve put a hell of a lot of money and energy into delivering the ability to do this and we’ve been all over it for a long time – way before the market went into turmoil, and that will not affect the timing of this in any way. No. Period. We’re doing this no matter what,” he added.

Nasdaq has long been rumored to be planning a Bitcoin Futures trading desk, but those rumors boiled over last week when sources close to the matter revealed that Nasdaq was steadfast and undeterred in their approach. Seemingly frustrated with the rumors, Christinat sought to put an end to the speculation.

“We’ve seen plenty of speculation and rumors about what we might be doing, but no one has thought to come to us and ask if we can confirm it, so, here you go – we’re doing this, and it’s happening,” Christinat said.

Nasdaq’s operation is said to be planned for the first half of 2019, but no specific date was mentioned. Nasdaq has recently begun dipping their toes into the cryptocurrency marketplace, first working with cryptocurrency exchange Gemini to implement Nasdaq’s market monitoring technology.

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