The world's second-largest stock exchange, Nasdaq, is allegedly testing trading of a bitcoin (BTC)-based product, according to a tweet by an analyst at quantitative trading analytics service StrongMarket on April 22.
Twitter personality Cryptopolis, a quantitative analyst at StrongMarket, tweeted that he bought one bitcoin through an account on retail brokerage firm TD Ameritrade (NASDAQ: AMTD) on Monday.
Cryptopolis suggested that bitcoin was trading on the platform against United States dollar under the unknown symbol “CXERX,” which is purportedly listed on the Nasdaq. The analyst added that BTC/USD trading pair was launched on April 10, 2019, based on the platform's chart.
Alleged BTC/USD trading pair on Nasdaq. Source: Cryptopolis Twitter
Following his findings, Cryptopolis reached out to TD Ameritrade’s support for further information. However, support declined to comment on the matter, stating that “it is not a symbol we trade on the live side so Im not really able to speak on it.”
While the analyst concluded that it was not a real trade on his account, he still alleged that Nasdaq is quietly testing a new bitcoin-based asset that is available only through their Paper Trading platform.
TD Ameritrade’s feedback on the alleged trading of bitcoin on Nasdaq. Source: Cryptopolis Twitter
In late 2018, Nasdaq reportedly confirmed its plans to launch bitcoin futures in the first half of 2019. VanEck Director of Digital Asset Strategies Gabor Gurbacs also told Cointelegraph that Nasdaq has been discussing futures with Nasdaq, MVIS Indices and other market participants for about 18 months.
In February 2019, Nasdaq started listing two cryptocurrency price indices from United States blockchain and crypto market data company Brave New Coin (BNC), including BNC’s Bitcoin Liquid Index (BLX) and Ethereum Liquid Index (ELX).
In turn, TD Ameritrade, which provides investment services to up to 11 million clients, previously announced its backing of new crypto exchange ErisX.
Meanwhile, bitcoin has continued gaining momentum, having broken the $5,500 threshold for the first time in 2019 today. The biggest cryptocurrency is up about 5% over the past 24 hours and 9% over the past 7 days, trading at $5,589 at press time, according to CoinMarketCap.