Saad Ullah
Cryptocurrency Crossroads
Adena’s remarks came a couple of days before her appearance and speech at the World Economic Forum. Praising cryptocurrencies as “the invention itself [as] a tremendous demonstration of genius and creativity”, she said NASDAQ has a firm believe on the role of crypto in the coming future.
According to the CEO, cryptocurrencies demonstrate a “classic invention cycle”. The original fringe users and pioneers of complex cryptography with simple monetary transactions lead to a hype where people started to use the technology in droves. This led to a market development where there came a large variety of sellers, each offering a new token.
Now that the market has shown signs of maturing (coming out of a super growth phase, of not anything else), cryptocurrencies are at a crucial point. According to her, there are only two absolute possibilities left, with “Either the innovation finds practical utility followed by years of steady and sustainable commercial progress and integration into the economic fabric” or “The invention fails to achieve broad adoption and its commercial applications as medium of exchange are limited.”
Evolution through Regulations
Friedman opined that for cryptocurrencies to survive and become mainstream, the technology needs to have “governance and regulatory clarity” though she did admit that governance and regulations are “antithetical to the original intent [of] a decentralized, ungovernable global currency”.
With this in mind, NASDAQ has provided support to crypto exchanges in developing systems are more transparent and have anti manipulation rules enforced, just like the traditional exchanges does. This includes big names like the Winklevoss twins’ Gemini exchange.
NASAQ has become increasingly crypto friendly, with intentions of launchingBitcoin Futures in the current year.
Saad Ullah
