The National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (Nasdaq) has made an exciting announcement, the upcoming purchase of Cinnober, a Swedish stock exchange technology firm that has a positive outlook on crypto, and has been attempting to make investments into digital assets easier.
Nasdaq, the New York-based, second largest stock exchange by market cap, has made“a USD 190m all-cash recommended public offer” to Cinnober, which it considers a prominent “financial technology provider to brokers, exchanges and clearing houses worldwide.” This acquisition, according to Nasdaq themselves “would strengthen its position as one of the world’s leading market infrastructure technology providers.”
The president and CEO of Nasdaq, Adena Friedman, elucidated:
“The combined intellectual capital, technology competence and capabilities of Cinnober and our Market Technology business will expand the breadth and depth of our fastest growing division at Nasdaq.”
Friedman continued with the following statement:
“Not only have the global capital markets continued to evolve rapidly, but new marketplaces in various industries are also demanding market technology infrastructure that enables rapid growth and scale as well as access to tools to promote market integrity. This acquisition will enhance our ability to serve market infrastructure operators worldwide, and will accelerate our ability to expand into new growth segments.”
The stock exchanges interest in the crypto industry is also backed up by the head of alternative data at Nasdaq's, Bill Dague's statement: “given the abundance of interest, we are exploring cryptocurrency related datasets.”
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
- This could be another potential step towards the crypto sphere by one of the most powerful stock exchanges in the worlds. Nasdaq, is allegedly planning to add an instrument to its Analytics Hub that will help in predicting crypto prices and reportedly the stock exchange is preparing to launch a crypto platform in 2019.
- If these expectations become a reality, this will be a big breakthrough for cryptocurrencies, possibly becoming a pivotal point in the history of digital currencies.