Nasdaq is preparing crypto custody services for institutions.

According to Bloomberg, Nasdaq has created a group focusing on digital assets and plan to offer BTC and ETH custody services for institutions.

For this they onboarded Ira Auerbach, who previously worked at crypto exchange Gemini, to lead the crypto assets division. He expressed his belief that institutional adoption will generate the future wave of the financial revolution.

“Demand among institutional investors for engaging in digital assets has increased in recent years, and Nasdaq is well-positioned to accelerate broader adoption and drive sustainable growth” - Tal Cohen, head of North American markets at Nasdaq.

In May, Nasdaq partnered with XP, a brazilian firm to create a crypto exchange - XTAGE and this partnership is expected to bring new opportunities to investors and other companies. The exchange launch is scheduled in 2022, but we have no official date at the time of writing. 

Looks like Nasdaq will be competing soon with crypto exchanges like Coinbase and crypto custodians like sAnchorage Digital and BitGo, holding Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) for institutional clients in the U.S. 

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