Nasdaq makes first big crypto push to lure institutional clients

Bloomberg

Nasdaq Inc is making its first major push into crypto, as the second-largest stock exchange prepares to capitalise on increasing appetite for digital
currencies among big-money investors.
A new group dedicated to digital assets will initially offer custody services for Bitcoin and Ether to institutional investors, according to Tal Cohen, the company’s executive vice president and head of North American markets. Nasdaq hired Ira Auerbach, who ran prime broker services at crypto exchange Gemini, to head up the new Nasdaq Digital Assets unit.
Wall Street’s biggest firms are deepening their involvement as institutional investor interest persists despite a downturn that cost jobs and depressed prices. BlackRock Inc partnered with Coinbase Global Inc to make it easier for investors to trade Bitcoin and shortly after offered its first investment product directly in the token. EDX Markets, a new exchange backed by Charles Schwab Corp, Fidelity Digital Assets, Citadel Securities and Virtu Financial among others, will start trading some tokens this year.
“We believe this next wave of the revolution is going to be driven by mass institutional adoption,” Auerbach said in an interview. “I can think of no better place to bring that trust and brand to the market than Nasdaq.”
As a custodian of digital assets — a step which is pending approval from the New York Department of Financial Services — Nasdaq would be competing with crypto firms such as Coinbase, Anchorage Digital and BitGo.
A small number of financial firms, including BNY Mellon
and State Street, also provide crypto custody for institutions, although a recent Securities and Exchange Commission accounting guideline has made holding tokens on behalf of clients more capital intensive.