Intercontinental Exchange’s CEO, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, recently revealed that cryptocurrency trading is, in his mind, a trend that can’t be ignored and didn’t rule out adding cryptocurrency futures contracts to his exchanges.
When asked about possibility of the New York Stock Exchange adding digital currency futures contracts, ICE’s chief executive Jeffrey Sprecher told Bloomberg TV that “there is a trend here we can’t ignore in my mind, so I don’t discount it”. Sprecher cited people’s lack of trust in the government as the reason for the success of alternative payment methods like Bitcoin, saying:
“People put more faith in a guy named Satoshi Nakamoto that no one has ever met than they do in the U.S. Fed”.
Bitcoin’s mysterious creator Satoshi Nakamoto has remained anonymous, and nobody even knows if Nakamoto is an individual developer or a group of people.
While neither confirming or denying the possibility of cryptocurrency futures, Sprecher acknowledged that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are only rising in popularity, despite their murky origins, which could be a big step in the fusion of cryptocurrency and traditional finance. The chief executive may perhaps be influenced by the trend amongst smaller traditional exchanges to list cryptocurrencies, in an effort to reach a wider market and capitalize on the growing trend.
Cboe Global Markets Inc became the first exchange in the world to lists bitcoin futures on last December. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), the largest exchange in the world, followed shortly after.
Nasdaq released a statement in January stating that they were considering listing Bitcoin futures as well. The trend could well have a global knock-on effect as exchanges seek to stay competitive, an adoptive ripple effect that could further bridge the gap between cryptocurrency and the traditional finance market.
