Adena Friedman is president and CEO of Nasdaq, Inc. On January 22, she is headed to the World Economic Forum in Davos. Ahead of that, on January 20, she posted on LinkedIn that Nasdaq believes cryptocurrency will have a role in the future.
the invention itself a tremendous demonstration of genius and creativity
CEO of Nasdaq on the future of cryptocurrencies
Interestingly, she also listed out how cryptos have gone through a typical invention lifecycle:
- early path forged by pioneers
- period of hype
- proliferation of new market entrants
- “dose of reality” which is where we are now
Friedman went on to say that blockchain currencies are at a crossroads, and that innovation can find practical utility and progress and integration into the economic fiber of society like the internet did, or the invention of blockchain and cryptos can fail to achieve broad adoption and its commercial applications are limited – she gave the Segway scooter as an example of this.
Nasdaq supports blockchain to some extent, as they are still planning to launch a Bitcoin Futures service in the first half of 2019. Nasdaq also provides its SMARTS market surveillance tech to exchanges like Gemini and DX Exchange. Also, in December 2018, ErisX raised $27.5 million from Nasdaq Ventures and Fidelity Investments.