Along this exciting journey of cryptocurrencies, crypto-markets and blockchain technology, we have seen traditional banking institutions embrace blockchain based payments solutions such as those offered by Ripple, as well as some banks opting to patent their own blockchain ideas. There has also been the case of Bitcoin (BTC) Futures contracts being offered by the CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange) Group and the CBOE (Chicago Board Options Exchange). The latter exchange has even filed for the listing of Bitcoin ETFs as securities with the SEC.

This trend of traditional stock exchange firms embracing crypto trading will continue to expand as more and more institutional investors and high net individuals start getting interested in cryptocurrencies as a new form of investing.

The newest addition to the list of traditional stock exchanges doing so, is Swiss based SIX. The Switzerland Stock exchange, which is owned and managed by SIX, is currently building a fully integrated trading, settlement and custody infrastructure for digital assets. SIX is regulated as an operator of Financial Market Infrastructure (FMI) by Swiss Authorities, FINMA (The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority) and the Swiss National Bank.

The new trading service will be based on Distributed Ledger Technology and its implementation is poised to provide a bridge between traditional investing and that of the crypto-markets for its clients.

Thomas Zeeb, Head of Securities & Exchanges at SIX, is quoted as saying the following with regards to the storage of digital assets:

The challenge [in crypto] is less in the trading of assets but rather in the custody and asset servicing, including asset safety. Do you adopt a model with many sub-custodians, including inefficient interfaces and with inherent risks, or do you go with a recognized and regulated infrastructure provider who provides all steps of the chain in an integrated and secure model? We believe that the latter has significant value. As the stock exchange infrastructure for Switzerland, we know what it takes to build and run mission-critical and scalable, systemically important services.

Mr. Zeeb’s comment echo what prompted Coinbase to start their Coinbase Custody service to cater for the cold storage of high volume cryptocurrencies held by institutional investors and high net individuals.

Jos Dijsselhof, CEO at SIX, would add that:

This is the beginning of a new era for capital markets infrastructures. For us it is abundantly clear that much of what is going on in the digital space is here to stay and will define the future of our industry. The financial industry now needs to bridge the gap between traditional financial services and digital communities. This is the role that we at SIX can play.

In a nutshell, traditional stock exchanges are constantly changing the products and services they offer their clients to include the new digital assets known as cryptocurrencies. It is no wonder many crypto-traders believe that the approval of Bitcoin ETFs by the SEC, will be the beginning of exciting and profitable times in the crypto-markets, as institutional investors and high net individuals embrace cryptocurrencies 100%.

Disclaimer: This article is not meant to give financial advice. It is an opinion piece. The opinion herein should be taken as is. Please carry out your own research before investing in any of the numerous cryptocurrencies available.