Just this week, Citigroup announced that they will be moving forward with creating Digital Asset Receipts (DARs) for their institutional investors.  The DARs will allow these investors to invest in cryptocurrency which is fully regulated and insured to the US federal regulatory standards.  These DARs could have a huge impact on the cryptocurrency market, and so could another new tool, a tool that predicts crypto price movements.

NASDAQ, the US stock exchange, is rumored to be adding a tool to its Analytics Hub that will allow institutional investors to predict the price movements of crypto assets.  Currently, the Analytics Hub is a tool which provides “fully-vetted financial data” to institutional investors which enables them to adopt and follow better investment strategies.  In large part, the platform relies on machine learning and natural language processing capabilities.  The platform continuously is looking for new data sets to inform investors and maximize return.  The predictive tool for crypto assets will allow investors to effectively maximize returns and minimize risks.  As a whole, the Analytics Hub has launched about a year ago and continues to grow as a useful tool for investors.

At this point in time, the Analytics Hub does not have any crypto asset data or information in that sector; rather, only traditional asset data is used on the platform.  An official announcement from NASDAQ citing the exploration of a crypto pricing tool could further signal an interest in the crypto sector, which Wall Street has not openly endorsed at this point.  NASDAQ did, however, acknowledge there are exploring bitcoin and similar products further.  In fact, NASDAQ CEO, Adena Friedman, said in April that she would consider creating a crypto exchange.  In addition, Bill Dague, NASDAQ’s head of alternative data, told CoinDesk that

“given the abundance of interest, we are exploring cryptocurrency related datasets.”  However, he also said, “whether or not we launch a crypto-related product remains to be seen.”

While NASDAQ has not officially made a statement, sources close to the issue are adamant that the tool will come to light soon.  In fact, one source told CoinDesk that the new functionality will be tested in a beta version in November and could provide insight on more than 500 crypto assets.  The source insisted that they are taking a tri-fold approach to the data analysis of crypto assets by gathering data from crypto wallets, exchanges, and social media.  In a statement to CoinDesk, the source said, “There’s the social media sentiment part, so applying machine learning and NLP, which will start with Twitter and might include StockTwits and then eventually perhaps Reddit.”