Nasdaq May Be Looking To Gatecrash Crypto Industry With Tokenized Securities Platform

A very important announcement was made on TheBlockCrypto today. According to the specialized media outlet, the U. S. exchange operator Nasdaq is looking to gatecrash the crypto market with a new platform that could be used to tokenize securities. The information comes from insiders which talked directly to the site.

According to the sources, Nasdaq would be looking to explore a security token platform, a site or program in which investors could issue and trade tokens on a blockchain as a way to raise funds.

The main difference from what the company would offer is that Security token offerings (STO) would be tailored to fit into the parameters of the securities laws in the United States, which the Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) are not, so institutional investors would certainly be more attracted to them.

As ICOs have risen into prominence last year, so have the frauds, which have made the U. S. Securities and Exchange Comiission (SEC) be very vigilant of them. This new initiative could fill the gap that the prohibition of unregulated ICOs in the United States caused.

The Crypto Block’s sources have affirmed that Nasdaq is talking to companies like Symbiont, Polymath, tZero and TrustToken. The same news company has stated that security tokens could help to remedy one of the main issues with US stocks, which is the fact that a single institution controls them, so centralization issues and risks could be diminished.

Nasdaq Has Been Interested In Tokenized Securities For Quite Some Time

You would be wrong if you are thinking that Nasdaq is only surfing on the Bitcoin trend of 2017. The company’s interest in this type of technology dates back to 2015, insiders affirm, and the company has firmed a prior partnership with Chain for a securities transaction on the blockchain was made in 2017 even before the crypto bull run started.

However, not everybody seems to be so interested in the technology, as reports show that Adena Friedman, Nasdaq’s CEO, has been affirmed not to be interested in ICOs last year. According to Friedman, there is a clear lack of transparency and accountability in ICOS, an opinion that she has since 2017.

It is important to notice, though, that STOs could be a possibility, as the CEO has affirmed that the company would be happy to figure out how to make something similar to ICOs, yet regulated, on the platform.

Friedman has also talked about Bitcoin, stating that the concept of digital money allows for cross-border transfers that transcend the banking system, however, she is not too much of a Bitcoin believer, at the same time.

This approach can be seen as the company has a currently more cautious approach to the industry than ICE (Intercontinental Exchange), for instance, does. The company that owns the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) has announced a crypto platform called Bakkt in August, while Nasdaq is slowly building its plan and it is not even offering a Bitcoin futures market at this point.