Nasdaq plans to add new Bitcoin and Ethereum Indexes

5 years ago - Published in Fintech Land

Nasdaq plans to add two cryptocurrency indexes, Bitcoin Liquid Index (BLX) and Ethereum Liquid Index (ELX), to its 40,000 indexes. Made in collaboration with crypto-data company Brave New Coin, they will be available on February 25th, showing users real-time information tied to the cryptocurrency market.

The proposed indexes will act as a single price point for Bitcoin and Ethereum with users receiving real-time messages on prices to assist in trading decisions.

According to a statement: “Effective Monday, February 25th, 2019, Nasdaq, through its data dissemination relationship with Brave New Coin, will send real-time Bitcoin and Ethereum index level information on the Nasdaq Global Index Data ServiceSM (GIDS)”.

Created by Brave New Coin, Bitcoin Liquid Index [BLX] and the Ethereum Liquid Index [ELX], aim to “provide a real-time spot or reference rate for the price of 1 BTC and 1 ETH respectively, quoted in USD, and based on the most liquid ends of their markets,” informed the alert. As per The Block Crypto’s report, the indexes will capture data from different exchanges to provide a single price point for bitcoin [BTC] and Ethereum [ETH], to enable the traders to get in an out of a position. They will be made available to clients of Nasdaq’s GIDS data feed which also has 40,000 of Nasdaq indexes like Nasdaq 100 and Nasdaq Composite. The cryptocurrency tied indexes will go live at the end of the month.

The alert added:”Both indices are calculated using a methodology that has been independently audited against key IOSCO principles. The BLX is one of the most widely-referenced BTC indices among crypto traders and has been calculated back to 2010. Likewise, the ELX has been calculated back to 2014.”

Apart from operating for equity, options and futures market, Nasdaq is also known for providing trading and market surveillance technology to seven cryptocurrency exchanges at least. Nasdaq has previously partnered with Symbiont, a crypto firm in order to offer white label solution to supports other exchanges to launch markets built on blockchain technology, reported the publication. Nasdaq also has been working towards its own bitcoin futures, whose launch date for the new market is still uncertain.