Stop the press. You read the headline correctly. That’s right folks, the world’s second-largest stock exchange Nasdaq is set to introduce their own Bitcoins futures market within the first quarter of next year.

According to sources which reported to Bloomberg earlier this week, Nasdaq has been in co-operation with the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in an effort to receive regulatory approval in order to operate as a compliant crypto futures market operator.

An excerpt from the report read:

“Nasdaq has been working to satisfy the concerns of the U.S.’s main swaps regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, before launching the contracts, the people said. The New York exchange operator, which was first reported to be eyeing Bitcoin futures last year, wants to allow trading in the first quarter of 2019, one of the people said.”



How Will Nasdaq & Bakkt Affect Bitcoin?

A cryptocurrency exchange by the name of Bakkt which was built by ICE which is the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange is set for a launch date for its Bitcoin futures market as early as January 24th 2019.

Back on November 20th, the company delayed the listing of Bitcoin futures due to an unexpected increase in demand for their futures product. They stated that they need additional time in order to properly prepare the infrastructure which is needed in order to smoothly serve a large group of investors based on US soil.

Bakkt announced:

“ICE Futures U.S., Inc. will list the new Bakkt Bitcoin (USD) Daily Futures Contract for trading on trade date Thursday, January 24, 2019, subject to regulatory approval. The new listing timeframe will provide additional time for customer and clearing member onboarding prior to the start of trading and warehousing of the new contract.”

At the moment, the demand from these institutional investors for crypto can be determined by the sheer numbers that Bakkt, Fidelity Digital Assets, Goldman Sachs, BitGo Custody, Coinbase Custody, and other major over-the-counter (OTC) markets are able to provide.

The advent of Nasdaq entering into a long-lasting bear market & downtrend strongly insinuates that the company sees sufficient potential demand from the US market and we all know that a conglomerate as massive as Nasdaq would not allocate so many of their eggs to one basket if they are not certain that the demand for this new asset class would grow in the near & far future.

Depending on Nasdaq’s delivery of their plans, by as earlier as the second quarter of 2019, the cryptocurrency market could very well have Nasdaq & NYSE, two of the world’s hugest stock exchanges, in the global market operating Bitcoin futures markets.

As Bakkt physically delivers Bitcoin to investors, it could very well have a direct impact on the Bitcoin supply and ultimately the price. While the exact details of Nasdaq’s plans are still shrouded in mystery, these two markets could, in fact, lead to an increase in additional liquidity for the asset.

What About The SEC?

Since August 2019, back when the SEC (US Securities and Exchange Commission) denied exchange-traded funds (ETFs) based on the futures market, the commission has persistently reiterated that the futures market is just not of a big enough size to be able to handle large-scaled investment vehicles.

However, in the next 6 to 12 months, this stance of the SEC towards the Bitcoin futures market could very well shift, especially if both Bakkt and Nasdaq are able to successfully demonstrate real, concrete demand from all investors.

Could this spark the global revolution that cryptocurrencies need? Could this mean widespread adoption of digital currencies? Let us know your thoughts.

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