29th March 2023 - Nasdaq.

tl;dr

The pace of institutional adoption of cryptos will soon be given a major boost, in the US of all places.

Market Snap

Market Wrap

BTC has ignored yesterday’s problems with another breach to the upside of $28k, taking out a bunch of leveraged shorts along the way.

XRP (Ripple) is up nearly 50% in a week with the tantalising prospect that the imminent resolution of the court case brought against Ripple Labs will settle in our favour. That would surely be a market moving event.

Occasional Series – The revolution always eats its own children

As a supporter of pushing Bristolian statues into the water, will the owners of the Guardian now do the same with their own printing presses?

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – The cat is out of the bag

The CCC team have often been critical, and justifiably so, of Convicted Criminal Christine Lagarde, Head of the ECB (European Central Bank).

She has now been open and honest about her true motivations.

Lagarde, a convicted criminal by the way, has said that CBs (Central Banks) risk “losing control” if they do not implement CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies).

Lagarde’s words strike fear into my heart, and into the hearts of everyone who believes in freedom and liberty.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Nasdaq

The Nasdaq is a 50-year-old institution based in New York which was the world’s first electronic trading exchange for stocks. It is the most active exchange by volume, and the second largest by market capitalisation for shares traded. In short, Nasdaq is an elder statesman of the securities trading world.

Nasdaq has applied to the New York Department of Financial Services for approval to offer crypto custody to its clients.

Regular readers know that secure, third-party custody of cryptos is a necessary prerequisite for institutional and retail adoption. Current custody services tend to be provided by crypto focussed firms with a lack of a track record, with the notable exceptions of Fidelity and BNY Mellon. Putting the name Nasdaq behind this service will be very enticing to a much greater range of potential clients.

But the good news does not stop there.

Nasdaq plans to build on the custody service. Matt Savarese, head of strategy for digital assets at Nasdaq explains:

"The next step for us is execution and liquidity services. And then we build on our anti-financial crimes so we can monitor this throughout the ecosystem."

These moves may seem to be at odds with the somewhat antagonistic regulatory atmosphere we have seen of late in the US.

The recent spate of regulatory action has been taken against new firms who have been operating in a regulatory void specific to cryptos. Older established businesses like Nasdaq and Fidelity already have experience of regulatory compliance with regards to TradFi. They are putting in the hard yards of complying with current rules drawn up before cryptos existed and applying them to cryptos before starting business. And that is a key difference.

This of course is why established businesses are so keen on governments adding red tape and bureaucracy wherever they can – such barriers to entry for new potential competitors can be insurmountable, but that is a topic for another day.