Coinbase Custody, Bithumb’s offline exchange, and other providers of big cryptocurrency exchanges already enable large-scale institutional and retail investors to put money into cryptocurrencies like bitcoin in large sums. Coinbase Custody, for example, only takes bids bigger than $15 million. Therefore, traders will not necessarily gain any advantage or merit over several other trades utilizing the bitcoin exchange of NYSE.
Two weeks ago, Nasdaq revealed that the exchange is receptive to the idea of trading cryptocurrencies in a controlled environment.
Now, according to the New York Times, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange is working on an internet trading platform that would allow big investors to buy and maintain Bitcoin.
Goldman Sachs, CME, CBOE, and other major financial institutions which have or are working toward the chance to trade Bitcoin futures, but are not directly addressing bitcoin.
The NYSE may now be creating a bitcoin market in which investors can purchase and sell the most dominant cryptocurrency, with no participation of derivatives, futures, and other kinds of contracts. NYSE customers and investors are going to have the ability to directly buy, sell, and maintain bitcoin, maybe in a wallet, very similar to Coinbase or alternative existing cryptocurrency platforms.
Some in the space, like former Goldman Sachs trader and LedgerX founder Paul Chou, are skeptical of the role the NYSE, Goldman Sachs, and others are now taking.
“The reason we got into crypto was not to partner with a bank, but to replace them,” Mr. Chou said. “We deal with crypto holders directly in a way that really takes advantage of Bitcoin’s strengths, while avoiding brokers, banks and other institutions that take multiple cuts of the transaction.”
With more and more mainstream financial institutions entering the cryptocurrency space, long-term fans of the scene may soon find themselves at a crossroads where potential profits and the original intentions of Satashi Nakamoto collide.
