In a further sign that Bitcoin continues down the path toward joining the financial mainstream, stock exchange operator Nasdaq has announced that it will add quotes for Bitcoin and Ethereum to its data service offered through the Nasdaq Global Index Data Service (GIDS). That change will take effect on February 25.
Since Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies are still very much in their infancy, price quotes often vary wildly from exchange to exchange. That leads to numerous investors attempting to engage in price arbitrage, buying Bitcoin on one exchange where prices are low and selling on another exchange where prices are higher. That in turn can make it difficult for investors who aren’t trying to arbitrage to know where to buy Bitcoin and how much to pay for it.
The difference in price across multiple platforms is why Nasdaq has partnered with New Zealand firm Brave New Coin to offer that company’s Bitcoin Liquid Index (BLX) and Ethereum Liquid Index (ELX) price quotes. BLX is one of the oldest and most respected Bitcoin price quotes around, having existed since 2010, almost since Bitcoin first began to gain traction.
This new offering is an indicator that interest in Bitcoin among mainstream institutional financial investors continues to grow steadily. By providing this data to those traders, they will have not only the ability to more effectively trade cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, but also the desire to do so since they have all the information they need right at their fingertips. And the more institutional investors decide to trade and invest in Bitcoin, the greater demand will be and the higher the price will rise.
Existing Bitcoin investors have every reason to cheer when news like this is publicized. Bitcoin is no longer treated as some weird curiosity that only interests criminals and technophiles – it continues its growth as a mainstream financial product that will revolutionize markets.
This article was originally posted on Coin IRA.
