Ira Auerbach, a former employee of Gemini, has apparently been appointed to oversee the company’s newly formed digital assets business.
The cryptocurrency market has seen widespread adoption and success, moving up the rankings of the financial markets and now Nasdaq Inc. is taking its first step into the cryptocurrency market by hiring a new group in charge of digital assets according to a September 20 Bloomberg report citing the company’s head of North American markets, Tal Cohen.
Ira Auerbach, who previously oversaw prime broker services at cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, was also hired by the company to lead its brand-new digital assets section. Auerbach expresses in the report his opinion that institutional adoption will lead to the next phase of the financial revolution. The executive claimed that Nasdaq is the best venue for fostering market trust.
Nasdaq has supplied the technology to participants in the crypto sector over the years instead of building a cryptocurrency exchange to compete with Coinbase and other companies. The first achievement is to provide institutional investors with custody services for Bitcoin and Ethereum.
To establish Nasdaq teamed up with the Brazilian firm XP in May to establish a digital asset exchange XTAGE. According to Nasdaq chief Roland Chai, the collaboration with XP will open up new prospects for investors and other businesses. The exchange is expected to open in 2022, according to XP.
The stock market and cryptocurrencies moved together during many of the significant ups and downs that investors experienced in 2022, despite the fact that equities and cryptocurrencies are quite distinct types of assets. Although it recently broke a record, BTC’s correlation with the S&P 500 is now at its highest point in respect to other conventional assets.
Institutions are beginning to rethink their prior stance of being hands-off when it comes to cryptocurrencies, and investors should look at the wider picture when it comes to the alignment of equities and cryptocurrencies considering it may be a good thing for the digital asset market.