The NASDAQ stock exchange will launch Bitcoin futures trading early next year, a spokesperson confirmed to Britain’s Daily Express on Monday.
The world’s No. 2 stock exchange is awaiting approval from the U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), NASDAQ’s Joseph Christinat told the British tabloid, adding that NASDAQ is confident it will receive approval and begin trading in the first half of 2019.
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and Cboe Futures Exchange began futures trading in late 2017. These trades are settled in cash rather than in Bitcoin.
With the confirmation of the long-rumored news, NASDAQ joins Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), owner of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), which has confirmed plans to launch its Bakkt platform in late January. Bakkt is more than just a futures exchange, also offering tools to allow merchants including Starbucks to accept cryptocurrencies, Modern Consensus reported in August. Bakkt’s Bitcoin futures contracts will be physically settled in Bitcoin.
Jeffrey Sprecher, CEO of ICE and chairman of the NYSE, was bullish about cryptocurrencies at Coindesk’s Consensus: Invest conference in New York last week, CNBC reported. When asked if cryptocurrencies will survive, CNBC reported, he said, “The unequivocal answer is yes.”
Bakkt CEO Kelly Loeffler, Sprecher’s wife, was on stage with him at Consensus: Invest, and explained that Bakkt’s launch was pushed back from its planned November launch to January 2019 “to give people more time to get on board,” CNBC reported.
