Nasdaq Inc. is planning to launch Bitcoin (EXANTE: Bitcoin) futures in the first half of 2018, The Wall Street Journal quoted people familiar with the situation as saying.
Nasdaq’s Bitcoin contract would debut on Nasdaq Futures, or NFX, a marketplace that the New York-based exchange group launched in 2015 that until now has mainly focused on energy trading.
Nasdaq and broker Cantor Fitzgerald are looking to join the rush on Wall Street to trade bitcoin https://t.co/f6toaOHA4F
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) November 29, 2017
The decision by Nasdaq comes after CME Group, a rival exchange operator focused on currencies and commodities derivatives, said in October that it will launch Bitcoin futures this year.
Nasdaq isn’t completely new to Bitcoin. It already uses blockchain, the ledger system that underlies Bitcoin, in its private securities market.
Cantor Fitzgerald LP, a global financial firm founded in 1945 whose businesses range from bond brokerage to investment banking to real estate, also unveiled its Bitcoin-derivatives plans in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.
The firm aims to launch a Bitcoin swap—a type of derivative—on Cantor Futures Exchange LP. Cantor’s swap would allow traders to bet on Bitcoin prices up to three months out, with built-in protections to limit their losses if bitcoin prices swung above $15,000 or below $5,000.
Bitcoin has surged 11-fold to more than $11,000 a coin since the start of this year.