The rush to the first-mover status via Blockchain technology is heating up between Nasdaq and Symbiont, the maker of the Smart Securities platform for trading, clearing, settling and transferring financial instruments. These early adopters are vying for key milestones in securities operations that can be transformed by the Blockchain distributed ledger technology that underpins the… Read More >>
How Real is Blockchain for You and Your Firm?
(Editor’s note: Almost like a secondary player upstaging the star, the Blockchain technology underpinning the crypto-currency Bitcoin has taken on a life of its own even if people in financial services have no clue about what it is. Simply put, the Blockchain is a public ledger that has been used to keep track of Bitcoin… Read More >>
CFTC Mulls Fixes for the Op Risks of Innovation
The CFTC is keeping an eye on the operational and technology risks that may hinder IT advances in key commodity, futures and derivatives markets, and will be responding, says Timothy Massad, CFTC chairman, in a keynote address this week before the annual meeting of the World Federation of Exchanges in Doha, Qatar. In particular, Massad… Read More >>
FIX Standards Body to Explore Blockchain, Digital Currency
The FIX Trading Community, the standards body for the Financial Information eXchange electronic trading protocol, is embracing digital currencies and Blockchain technology initiatives with the formation of a new working group whose mission is to identify, analyze and define use cases and integration points for digital currency and distributed ledger technologies. The working group has… Read More >>
CEO: ‘[SETL Platform] Will Be 100 Times Faster’
![CEO: ‘[SETL Platform] Will Be 100 Times Faster’](https://www.ftfnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Anthony-Square-SETL-1-150x150.jpg)
Officials at the Blockchain startup SETL are developing a platform that they say will allow securities trading firms to settle transactions in an instant, automated and decentralized fashion. FTF News, which previously profiled the startup, sat down with Anthony Culligan, the CEO for SETL to get an update. Culligan’s career includes directorships with Robert Fleming… Read More >>
Symbiont Unveils Blockchain-Based ‘Smart Securities’
Symbiont, a new startup that aims to streamline financial markets by marrying them with Blockchain technology, unveiled its flagship Smart Securities platform on Tuesday. The company will be competing with a number of other start-ups offering Blockchain-based platforms for trading, clearing and settling securities, but Symbiont’s executives say their long history working with Bitcoin will… Read More >>
Deutsche Bank Is the Latest to Explore Blockchain
Deutsche Bank is actively exploring Blockchain technology and expects it to have a big impact on the financial markets in the years ahead, according to a letter sent by the bank to a European regulator. The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) is currently exploring how it will regulate digital currencies, reports Coindesk, and the… Read More >>
Ex-CFTC Chairman Joins BitFury Advisory Board
BitFury Group, a Bitcoin blockchain infrastructure provider and transaction processing company, has added James Newsome, the former chairman of the CFTC and former CEO of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) and Hernando de Soto, the president of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy (ILD), to its advisory board, officials say. The company has also… Read More >>
Nasdaq Embraces a Disruptive Blockchain Initiative
The Nasdaq Stock Market has announced it will soon use blockchain technology – the decentralized ledger system that powers cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin – to facilitate the management of a special private equity securities service, the latest indication that the hype surrounding blockchain isn’t all hot air. Interestingly, centralized exchanges like Nasdaq have long been identified… Read More >>
Could Regulation Drive Bitcoin’s Acceptance?
Speakers at a conference on Bitcoin noted that as incongruous as it may seem for a crytocurrency created by anarcho-capitalists, regulation could be an important first step in bringing Bitcoin the trust and recognition it needs before it can really take off. “Nobody is excited about regulation,” says Sarah Martin, CEO of digital currency public… Read More >>
