Once the space matures, NASDAQ is open to becoming a platform for trading cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, according to the company's CEO.
"Certainly NASDAQ would consider becoming a crypto exchange over time," Adena Friedman told the media Wednesday. "If we do look at it and say 'it's time, people are ready for a more regulated market,' for something that provides a fair experience for investors."
A key roadblock for the NASDAQ and other institutional investors is regulation, which Friedman said needs to be ironed out before the company would add an exchange. But she was bullish on the future of digital assets.
In the meantime, NASDAQ is supporting existing cryptoexchanges.
On Wednesday, the company announced a collaboration with cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, founded by early bitcoin investors Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. The deal gives Gemini access to NASDAQ's surveillance technology to help make sure the platform provides a fair and "rules-based marketplace," for their own participants, Gemini CEO Tyler Winklevoss said in a statement.
While Friedman was optimistic about the future of cryptocurrencies she was less so on the fundraising process known as an initial coin offering, or ICO, saying "ICOs need to be regulated," she said. "The (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) is right that those are securities and need to be regulated as such."
The SEC has cracked down on ICO fraud in 2018, and said in March it is looking to apply securities laws to everything from cryptocurrency exchanges to digital asset storage companies known as wallets.
