Is Nasdaq Silently Testing Bitcoin-Based Product?

The world’s second-largest stock exchange, Nasdaq, is supposedly trialing buying and selling of a bitcoin (BTC)-based product, as per a tweet by analyst at StrongMarket, which offers quantitative trading analytics service.

Twitter persona Cryptopolis, a quantitative analyst at StrongMarket, posted on twitter Monday that he was able to purchase a Bitcoin via a retail brokerage account with TD Ameritrade (NASDAQ: AMTD). Cryptopolis mentioned that Bitcoin is paired with the US dollar on the platform under the unexplained symbol “CXERX,” presumably listed on Nasdaq.

The analyst further revealed that on April 10, 2019, BTC / USD trading pair was unveiled on the basis of the platform’s chart. Currently, TDAmeritrade offers just one cryptocurrency trading product, Bitcoin futures. Following his observations, Cryptopolis supported TD Ameritrade for additional data.

Customer support said NASDAQ was just trialing their demo trading platform. But, support refused to further elaborate on the subject, stating that “it’s not a symbol we trade on the live side so I can’t really speak on it.”

While the analyst reached the conclusion that it wasn’t a real deal made on his account, he still claimed that Nasdaq is silently trying out a new Bitcoin-based investment vehicle which is only accessible via its Paper Trading platform. Customer support’s response was somewhat cryptic, as per twitter users. Eventually, the community was unable to arrive at a conclusion whether TDAmeritrade is introducing Bitcoin trading or not.

Twitter user Ben Galdanaut opined as follows:

“Coudl be a forex symbol… This guy is aware that he just can’t reveal. ‘Coudl’ is a smoke signal if I ever saw one.”

Back in late 2018, Nasdaq supposedly revealed its plans to introduce Bitcoin futures during the first half of 2019. Gabor Gurbacs, Director of Digital Asset Strategies, also disclosed that the company has been debating futures with Nasdaq, MVIS Indices as well as other market players for almost 18 months. Gurbacs said fresh products will be robust and transparent relative to other market offerings. Adding futures to the Bitcoin market indicates that the market has evolved and grown, Gurbacs said.

Gurbacs said, “there is an increased regulatory and institutional drive towards greater transparency into the digital asset space.”

NASDAQ intends to enter into cryptocurrency market since 2018. Bakkt, designed and built by ICE (NYSE’s parent company), also said they’d enter cryptocurrency domain. But nothing took place until now. Until NASDAQ affirms they’re formally introducing Bitcoin trading, it’s all assumptions.

TD Ameritrade, which offers investment facilities to up to 11 million customers, recently announced its tacit support for new ErisX crypto exchange. In the meantime, Bitcoin has gained momentum, breaking the $5,500 barrier for the very first time in 2019 today. According to CoinMarketCap, the largest cryptocurrency is up about 5% over the past 24 hours and 9% over the past 7 days.