FTX cryptocurrency derivatives exchange has unveiled a new offering to its customers involving the ability to trade top Wall Street stocks against a limited array of digital currencies.
According to Coindesk, FTX exchange has launched Bitcoin (BTC), Tether (USDT), and other digital currencies trading pairs with the digitized token versions of Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA), Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN), Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL), Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB) as well as other publicly traded stocks.
Describing it as the very first of its kind, FTX exchange customers can sign up or register to trade the more than 10 equity stocks against the supported cryptocurrencies through FTX’s fractional stock offerings. Sam Bankman-Fried, the Chief Executive Officer of FTX highlighted that the tokens account for a fraction of one share, implying that traders will be able to trade half of a share at a time in a bid to boost liquidity.
“These products demonstrate a powerful future, in which assets are digitized and traders have unlimited creative potential to express their beliefs about the markets,” the CEO noted, adding that “These fractional stock products reflect the reality that today’s traders are industry and sector spanning and want trading opportunities that fully match their interests and mindset.”
The move to launch the tokenized trading pair for these popular stocks may in part contribute to the surging interest in crypto amongst institutional investors. This latest offering will further give some of the more cautious industry bigwigs a closer room to try out crypto offerings or value propositions. The crypto pair product for these stocks will however not be available to citizens or businesses resident or located in user restricted areas including the United States of America, Iran, and North Korea to mention a few.
FTX Exchange Related Product Offering Can Drive Institutional Adoption of Bitcoin
The fundamental principle behind many digital currency projects and products is strong enough to drive their increased adoption but the creativity with which the cryptosphere rolls-out products and services such as that modeled by the FTX exchange can accelerate the pace of this adoption and integration.
Already, the majority of firms listed on public exchanges particularly in the United States have begun showing their interest in cryptocurrencies with some already stocking up on Bitcoin as their primary reserve asset.
Notable among these firms is Nasdaq-listed MicroStrategy Incorporated (NASDAQ: MSTR), a Virginia based company that provides business intelligence, mobile software, and cloud-based services. The firm first purchased 21,454 BTC as reported by Coinspeaker back in August and has shored up this position remarkably well in subsequent months. The firm also confirmed in its recent earnings report that it plans to pump additional liquidity into Bitcoins.
Other firms including Square Inc (NYSE: SQ) and PayPal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: PYPL) with a BTC portfolio and which supports the payment and shopping with crypto respectively also joins the institutions whose interests are tipped to skew more investors to embrace digital assets.
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