NYSE Chairman Says Bitcoin (BTC) And Other Digital Currencies Have A Place In The Regulated Market

With the cryptocurrency market as unpredictable as ever, community members were happy when they chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, Jeff Sprecher said that there is a place for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in the regulated markets. Sprecher, who also happens to be the CEO of Intercontinental Exchange, the company backing Bakkt, talked about the future of cryptocurrencies in the regulated markets. According to him, the cryptocurrency industry isn’t going away anytime soon irrespective of what headlines are stating.

Digital Assets Have A Future In Regulated Markets

Sprecher was asked about his opinion on the drop in the price of BTC during a conference on Tuesday. In reply, he said:

“Will digital currencies survive? The answer is yes. As the operator of an exchange, I do not opine on prices.”

Sprecher is certain that the cryptocurrency market is here to stay. This is why it is not surprising to see that his exchange, Intercontinental Exchange, has entered into partnership with BCG, Microsoft and Starbucks to facilitate another company known as Bakkt for the promotion of Bitcoin futures trading next year. The project was initially set for launch in November 2018 but last week, the company announced that it has pushed the date to January 2019.

The CEO of, Bakkt Kelly Loeffler, had some things to say about the decision of the company to push the launch forward. According to her, the original timeline was ambitious and more customers than expected filled the pipeline up quickly. In her words:

“To increase the success rate of the project, we decided to push it back to the holidays so people will have more time to get onboard. It is a positive sign that people are interested in the project and this will give them time to learn more about it. It is our responsibility to do that. So, we are taking extra time.”

For a start, only Bitcoin futures will be available on Bakkt. It may decide to make more options available later. The company will provide custody services along with price discovery for BTC without fear of manipulation or fraud. This is going to ignite the interest of institutional investors who are not currently interested in the market because of price manipulations and lack of regulatory certainty. Loeffler continued:

“We are developing that infrastructure that isn’t currently in existence today. We believe this is a great opportunity for institutional investors who are interested in the market.”

Another reason why institutions will be interested in this arrangement is that contracts will be settled differently from regular Bitcoin futures. The already existing futures on CBOE and CME started falling when the price of Bitcoin fell this week. Bakkt intends to make the settlement different from these other brands.

Bakkt isn’t the only company that is going to launch Bitcoin futures trading next year. VanEck and Nasdaq have also announced their plans to create a Bitcoin futures trading platform in 2019. Hopefully, this kind of developments will invite more institutional investors to the market as cryptocurrency adoption grows gradually. This will go a long way to breading the industry into maturity. Things like price manipulations and high volatility will be reduced significantly.

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