The New York Times has reported that Goldman and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange has been working on launching their own trading platform for Bitcoin.
The proposed platform would ‘allow large investors to buy and hold Bitcoin’, according to emails and documents procured by the New York Times with additional details provided by four people who are close with the project.
The move is seen as a direct response to Goldman Sachs opening their own futures trading desk, the first of its kind to be offered by an investment bank on Wall Street.
ICE’s alleged new platform would be going one step further than futures contracts, which is a method of exchange that deals with the future price of the particular asset and is only delivered and paid for at an agreed-upon future date.
Reports indicate that the new platform would be for swaps – a derivative contract that results in the owning of an asset such as Bitcoin the very next day – all powered by official, large and licensed financial institutions operating on Wall Street.
It is understood that the implementation of the exchange of swaps is a means to operate within regulations set by Commodity Futures Trading Commission of the US. Most cryptocurrency exchanges operating in the US have been loose with their interpretation of such regulations, but the largest investment firms and hedge funds have been more cautious in their approach to trading cryptocurrencies.
If ICEs platform comes to fruition, it could set an important precedent for complete adoption along Wall Street.
Image From Shutterstock
