25 June 2014 / NY Post – Bitcoin’s future might come down to David versus Goliath.
Nasdaq, the stock exchange known for its high-tech stocks, and Marc Andreessen, the venture capitalist who co-founded Netscape, could soon be squaring off in a battle to become New York’s first regulated exchange of the digital currency, sources told The Post.
The push to create the exchange comes as the state’s top financial watchdog is close to wrapping up new rules on bitcoin, according to four people familiar with the situation.
The twilight of the rule-writing process — expected now in early July — has started internal discussions at Nasdaq about how to take advantage of the currency’s growing popularity, sources said.
Andreessen, whose venture capital firm was an early investor in tech darlings like Twitter, has reached out to the New York Department of Financial Services about the upcoming rules and what it would take to create an exchange, sources said.
Should Nasdaq officials decide to go forward, they likely will move quickly — exchange officials expect to create a regulated platform for bitcoin buyers and sellers in about a year, one source said.
Nasdaq already has a small foothold in the bitcoin community with its listing of the Winklevoss twins’ bitcoin exchange-traded fund, the first publicly-traded ETF of the currency….. Read more
