Adena Friedman, the CEO of Nasdaq Inc., declared for Bloomberg Businessweek that she thinks that cryptocurrencies are at “the height of a hype cycle” and they could become the “financial element of the Internet.”
At the very beginning, Nasdaq was a little bit skeptical about cryptocurrencies and thus they made a research about how much they should invest in digital currencies. Slower, they trusted more and more in currencies and then their conception has changed. Friedman started to think that the currencies have enough potential to become a financial element of the Internet.
Nasdaq CEO about cryptocurrencies
Friedman declared recently that cryptocurrencies are “very much a speculative asset class”. At the beginning, the currencies didn’t have a specific purpose for the international commerce. Instead, Friedman speculated from the very beginning that the currencies will provide a “more seamless way for commerce to occur” whenever they would become enough mature. Adena believes that in the future “there will be that utility” regarding cryptocurrencies.
The plan of Friedman to involve more in the cryptocurrency industry is to furnish surveillance technologies and market information. In the industry of cryptocurrencies, there are many players, at “[the] height of a hype cycle”.
Friedman expresses also her opinion about blockchain, declaring:
“There are massive inefficiencies where there is paper instead of automation, where there’s really poor record keeping and everything’s in a drawer somewhere, like private securities. So we have to deploy blockchain into the private market, where you can find really long settlement cycles, and how [blockchain] can shorten those.”
The CEO said that she sees significant opportunities where blockchain is suitable, stating:
“I do think this continues to be a fascinating technology that could be quite disruptive over a long term. [It’s] hard to implement because it requires an entire network to deploy it simultaneously, but I think it’s something over the time could become a very interesting force of our business.”
Another declaration of Friedman since April states that “certainly Nasdaq would consider becoming a crypto exchange over time” if the market will become more regulated.