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Nasdaq
President Adena Friedman says digital assets still represent an attractive opportunity for the exchange despite concerns hanging over the space as a result of the collapse of FTX.
“There’s a total crisis of trust in the crypto space and that’s usually an opportunity for trusted players to start to figure out how to get engaged in the right way,” Friedman told Barron’s associate editor Jack Hough during a Wednesday interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Up until recently, Nasdaq was only a technology provider to crypto companies, helping them to manage market manipulation. The company has expanded its businesses in the space, launching custodial services for cryptocurrencies in September. Nasdaq is currently working with the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) for approval.
“We decided to come in and start with the basics, to become a custody solution for the crypto market,” she said. “That’s a safekeeping role to play. It’s time for firms like ours to come in and say we can help rebuild the trust.”
Friedman said it plans to start off with custodial services for
Bitcoin
and
Ethereum
.
Detecting financial crime is another area of growth for the business, Friedman said. Nasdaq has been providing these services to brokers, and ramped up its efforts in the space following the completion of its acquisition of Verafin in 2021.
“[Money laundering] is a $4 trillion problem if you look at it on a global basis—likely laundered through the financial system,” Friedman said, adding that about 1% of that is being detected successfully.
“The more we can bring modern technology into it … the better we’ll be at it,” she said. “It starts with the technology.”
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