Why Nasdaq’s Crypto Move Lays the Ground for a Ballistic Recovery in Digital Asset Prices

cryptonews.com:

Nasdaq has launched a new dedicated digital assets unit to cater to institutional investors. The move by the second-largest stock exchange by market capitalization globally could mark a ballistic price recovery point for the struggling cryptocurrency market. 

In a statement to Bloomberg, Nasdaq officials said that the digital assets unit has been launched in response to persistent institutional interest and demand for crypto services. 

According to Tal Cohen, Nasdaq's executive vice president and head of North American markets, the unit will initially offer custody services for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH). Other services, including execution services and liquidity services, will be built off the initial custody offer. 

“Custody is foundational. Off the back of custody, we can start to develop other solutions, offer execution services, liquidity services, and think about how we support new markets,” Cohen said. 

For her part, the newly hired head of the digital assets unit Ira Auerbach, who formerly headed prime broker services at crypto exchange Gemini, said that Nasdaq believes the next wave of the crypto revolution will be championed by institutional adoption. 

“We believe this next wave of the revolution is going to be driven by mass institutional adoption. I can think of no better place to bring that trust and brand to the market than Nasdaq,” she said. 

Nasdaq, meanwhile, has not been the only traditional financial giant to recognize the growing demand for crypto services among institutional investors. Other Wall Street bigwigs including BlackRock, Charles Schwab Corp., Fidelity Digital Assets, Citadel Securities, and Virtu Financial among others have also made crypto plays recently. 

BlackRock announced a partnership