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New York-based Nasdaq Inventory Trade has determined to delay the launch of its crypto custody service because of the unsure regulatory setting within the U.S.
Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman, throughout the firm’s quarterly earnings name on Jul. 19, 2023, mentioned:
“Contemplating the shifting enterprise and regulatory setting within the U.S., we’ve made the choice to halt our launch of the U.S. digital belongings custodian enterprise.”
In line with Friedman, the change stays dedicated to the digital belongings business however is not going to pursue a related operational license till there’s extra readability. She added that Nasdaq will proceed creating options for the business within the meantime.
Friedman additionally clarified that the choice to delay the launch of the custody service is unrelated to the continued course of for a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, which might be supported by the change.
Friedman mentioned:
“We stay dedicated to supporting the evolution of the digital asset ecosystem in quite a lot of methods, amongst them by way of our ongoing engagement with regulators, the supply of complete know-how options throughout the commerce lifecycle and thru our partnerships with potential ETF issuers to help tradable change listed merchandise.”
Nasdaq is performing as BlackRock’s companion for the latter’s spot Bitcoin ETF.
Shifting regulatory setting
The change first introduced plans for a digital belongings custody enterprise in Nov. 2022, and the service was set to launch by the tip of the second quarter earlier than the choice in March 2023 to delay the launch.
Nonetheless, the following weeks since then have seen the U.S. regulatory panorama deteriorate and turn into extra advanced to navigate because the SEC ramped up enforcement towards the crypto business with authorized complaints towards Coinbase and Binance.US.
The SEC has adopted a tough stance that almost all cryptocurrencies are securities and is utilizing this as a key prong in its enforcement technique. Nonetheless, the difficulty has but to be decided with finality by lawmakers which has turn into the central ache level in lots of the authorized instances with crypto corporations.
Many cryptocurrency corporations have determined to give attention to development exterior the U.S. till lawmakers and regulators can set up extra certainty for the business.
In the meantime, there’s some optimism for the business within the U.S., as Congress is about to vote on crypt-related laws this week. The result could possibly be an important step in clarifying the regulatory panorama for the business.
The submit Nasdaq postpones crypto custody plans, citing ‘shifting enterprise and regulatory setting’ appeared first on CryptoSlate.
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