The exchange giant is joining Fidelity and BNY Mellon in the pursuit of their own cryptocurrency custody platform.

Nasdaq, an American stock exchange based in New York City, is reportedly looking at Q2 2023 for the release of its custody services for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. 

In an interview with Bloomberg, Senior Vice President and Head of Nasdaq Digital Assets Ira Auerbach said that Nasdaq “is pushing ahead to get all the necessary technical infrastructure and regulatory approvals in place.”

The report describes an infrastructure that might look similar to that of Fidelity Digital Assets, which quietly opened its operations to the public last week. The first step to bitcoin and cryptocurrency trading on Nasdaq would be the custody service for the assets.

According to the Bloomberg report, “Nasdaq has applied to the New York Department of Financial Services for a limited-purpose trust company charter, which would oversee the new business.”

Launching just as several major cryptocurrency firms have collapsed, amidst increasing regulatory tension, the goal is seemingly to offer those customers who now have no platform, a regulated, well-trusted American service for bitcoin.

It should be noted that many of the issues surrounding exchanges come from the third-party risks presented by a custodian holding bitcoin for customers. The most secure way to interact with bitcoin is to self-custody it with your own wallet. Although trading platforms do offer the ease of interaction created by custodianship, with the American financial system seeing precarious headlines as of late, it is important to consider these trade offs compared with traditional bitcoin self-custody.