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So yesterday morning George Kikvadze, vice chairman of the board and adviser at bitcoin infrastructure company BitFury, announced on Twitter that we would see an SEC regulated bitcoin exchange launched on the NASDAQ over the next month or so:
Just learned at a private dinner there will be a new SEC Regulated @Bitcoin ETF Fund launched on @Nasdaq in the next 4 weeks !!!
— George Kikvadze (@BitfuryGeorge) January 22, 2015
Initial reaction to the Tweet was cagey, with a number of his followers suggesting that – unless this announcement came into being – it could seriously damage Kikvadze’s credibility. Well, today, it looks as though his announcement has been at least somewhat validated n- by the Winklevoss twins.
An article in the New York Times DealBook (reported early morning GMT (23rd) – late evening EST (22nd) has confirmed that the Winklevoss twins will be creating the first regulated bitcoin exchange for American customers – referred to by the digital currency enthusiasts as the NASDAQ of bitcoins. While not exactly the exchange traded fund Kikvadze referred to (as this –initially at least – looks to be autonomous from NASDAQ and an ETF, not an exchange) the timing of both announcements looks to be far from coincidental.
Financed purely in-house, the twins expect that a regulated exchange such as the one they aim to create will help strengthen US consumer confidence as far as the potential of digital currencies concerned. Tyler Winklevoss had this to say:
Right now we have to build the infrastructure… You have to walk before you run.
This time around we are betting on ourselves.
Alongside the exchange traded fund we have covered in the past – set to trade under the ticker COIN when it launches on the NASDAQ stock market in the near future – this looks to be a sign that the Winklevoss twins are willing to accept certain levels of regulation in order to ensure bitcoin’s mainstream future. For me, at least, this is not a bad thing – what about you?
Images from Winklevoss.
