By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 18th, 2024
FTX US earlier became the first-ever NFT marketplace to list Ethereum and Solana-based NFTs.
FTX US, the United States branch of FTX.COM, a global crypto exchange has announced that it is working to make crypto derivatives and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) accessible to its customers on the platform. In addition, the exchange is seeking to offer tokenized stock trading to its US customers. This was disclosed by Brett Harrison, the president of FXT US when discussing the process the exchange is taking to build a self-hosted wallet to support FTX NFTs and NFT gaming.
The steps to offer these services started in October when FTX US acquired Ledger Holdings to expand its services to include derivatives. Ledger Holdings is the parent firm of the crypto derivative LedgerX.
FTX US earlier became the first-ever NFT marketplace to list Ethereum and Solana-based NFTs. With the positive response from users and the boom of the NFT market, the space has become more competitive as Binance and Coinbase Global Inc (NASDAQ: COIN) are ramping up operations. Since Coinbase announced in October that it is working on an NFT marketplace, the exchange recorded millions of signups on its platforms a few weeks after the announcement.
About two weeks ago, FTX US announced a partnership deal with the Golden State Warriors professional basketball team. The basketball team seeks to create NFTs and as part of the deal, FTX US will be the main place to launch its digital assets.
FTX CEO Worries about Crypto Regulation
FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried announced that FTX US has become a member of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association.
“We’re excited to announce that FTX US is now a member of @ISDA. We are looking forward to working alongside ISDA and their CEO @ScottOMalia as we continue to build up crypto derivatives markets in the United States and globally,” he announced.
Interestingly, this groundbreaking development comes at a time there is huge regulatory uncertainty in the crypto industry. The recent decisions by financial regulators mean FTX has to launch its products with regulatory compliance.
With the growing crypto market and its popularity among mainstream institutions, Bankman-Fried believes that regulation is the missing piece to the crypto’s full success. Lack of a clear process of token issuance, regulation on platform registrations as well as stablecoin in several jurisdictions is the obvious challenge being faced by the market.
According to him, this can be addressed by working collaboratively with other stakeholders. He also believes that liquidity should be allowed to move to Europe and the US.
“Stablecoins are maybe the most straightforward: create a reporting/transparency/auditing-based framework to ensure they are backed as they say they are. This would solve 80% of the problems while allowing stablecoins to thrive onshore,” he said.