Speaking at a Yahoo Finance event on automated markets at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Adena Friedman, the President, and CEO of Nasdaq, called the invention of crypto “a tremendous demonstration of genius and creativity.”
According to Adena Friedman, crypto has evolved through what she terms a “classic invention lifecycle” — from its early path forged by pioneers in cryptography and economics, to a period of hype, the proliferation of new market entrants, and now, most recently, “a dose of reality.”
The Nasdaq CEO’s comments about cryptocurrencies came as part of an article titled “New chapters in innovation and disruption will be written in 2019” that she posted on her Linkedin account.
The CEO argued that for crypto to evolve into a practical, useable invention with a stable value it requires “governance and regulatory clarity.” She also suggested that both of these are, at their core, “antithetical to the original intent [of] a decentralized, ungovernable global currency.”
Remarking on the need for a transparent and fair crypto exchange market in particular, Friedman noted that Nasdaq has provided its in-house technology to help start-up exchanges forge best practices.