Ex NYSE CFO Says Coinbase Listing on Nasdaq is Sign of Real Financial Innovation

Ame Butte, the former CFO of the New York Stock Exchange in a recent interview with CNBC said the direct listing of Coinbase on Nasdaq is a sign of real financial innovation. The comments came in the context of massive Bitcoin and crypto adoption over the past 3-4 months. The new year 2021 saw several former Bitcoin critics including the likes of JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, and many other financial giants rush to add Bitcoin exposure as the price of the top cryptocurrency nearly tripled since the start of the new year.

Apart from a massive adoption drive among Wall Street investors and banks, many crypto companies saw their valuation nearly double in these 3-4 months’ time as many crypto startups including BlockFi and Chainalysis raised record funds in their latest fundraising indicating the growing demand for these crypto firms.

Coinbase revealed its plan of going public in December last year following which it had quite a successful first quarter in 2021 recording estimated profit ranging in $800 million while the total number of registered users rose to 56 million.  The exchange holds a record $122 billion worth of crypto assets under its management.

These figures resonate with Butte’s comment of a financial innovation happening right before our eyes, given crypto was still a taboo subject only last year. Butte explained,

“This is a real innovation in financial services, Institutions even in the last 3-4 months have come in and corporates have come in and said hey I need to have crypto as part of my treasury planning.”

Coinbase on par With NASDAQ and NYSE

The crypto market cap has surpassed the $2 trillion mark and with its current pace might nearly double the current figures by the end of this year. Coinbase is a fully regulated exchange and was recently cleared by the SEC on its S-1 public listing filing, and many believe the first-quarter performance of the exchange might raise its valuation even further.

Coinbase trading volume and number of registered customers put it on par with many mainstream exchanges including NYSE and NASDAQ.  Apart from Coinbase, a number of other crypto platforms have revealed their plans of going public in near future. A Bitcoin ETF approval by the SEC this year could act as a cheery on top for the cryptosystem and drive the already growing adoption to the next level.