Bitcoin may be moving away from the fringes of the financial world and into the mainstream. The parent company of the New York Stock Exchange is working on developing an online trading platform that could give large investors the opportunity to buy and hold bitcoin.
The report was triggered by Goldman Sachs going public with its intention to open Bitcoin trading. The New York Stock Exchange’s new attitude towards Bitcoin could give the cryptocurrency the mainstream legitimacy it has lacked for so long and shake the high-risk investment that it has been labeled with.
Bitcoin’s audience is writing its history
After the 2008 financial crisis, Bitcoin was created by the anonymous programmer Satoshi Nakamoto. The programmer wanted to create a type of online currency that couldn’t be controlled by a handful of powerful organizations.
Instead of replacing existing banks, Bitcoin and its users are forcing banks to see cryptocurrencies as a ligament form of currency. Most consumers have been buying Bitcoin on unregulated markets for years in the hope that one day it would become more valued than traditional currency.
The coming cryptocurrency platforms
What exactly the platforms will entail and how they work has still not been released. There is still a good chance the planned platform could fall apart. Some crucial investors are still wary about being associated with a type of currency that has been nicknamed “the Wild West.”
Bitcoin has gained the attention of corporations and governments before, but not because of its use as currency. They have instead been interested in the database known as blockchain that Bitcoin uses.
Various operations including ICE have been trying to work with banks to establish ways for customers to more easily buy and store Bitcoin. ICE wants to set up a program known as “swap” that would allow customers to purchase Bitcoin that would be put in the bank the next day.
The trouble with ICE’s idea is that by using banks, Bitcoin would come under the regulation of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Today’s Bitcoin exchanges have been able to avoid regulation; it is unclear how current Bitcoin buyers would feel about the cryptocurrency becoming regulated.
