NYSE Launches Bitcoin Price Index

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) launched the first exchange-calculated and disseminated bitcoin index (NYXBT) earlier today. The price index will be published daily at 4pm (BST). NYXBT will be available through the NYSE Global Index Feed (GIF) and for a limited time, on NYSE’s website.

The price index will be calculated by analyzing a select data sets of bitcoin exchanges and verifying the integrity of the transactions to find the correct US dollar value for one Bitcoin. For now, the NYSE will only be using transactions from the Coinbase Bitcoin Exchange, launched earlier this year. The large financial institution did say they might add more exchanges in the future, if those businesses meet their standards.

“Bitcoin values are quickly becoming a data point that our customers want to follow as they consider transacting, trading or investing with this emerging asset class.”
— – Thomas Farley, NYSE Group President

“As a global index leader and administrator of ICE LIBOR, ICE Futures U.S. Dollar Index and many other notable benchmarks, we are pleased to bring transparency to this market,” Farley added. “By combining our technology infrastructure with our expertise in index calculation and data management, we will continue to launch complementary products based on our rigorous standards and proprietary index methodology.”

The announcement of the price index comes a day after the first Bitcoin-based security was launched by XBT Provider in Sweden. The Bitcoin security is the first ever issued by a regulated exchange, the Nasdaq Stockholm exchange.

An old interest in Bitcoin

NYSE’s most noteable prior involvement with crypto-currency was its investment in the leading Bitcoin exchange and payment processor Coinbase, in January. But according to an interview with NYSE President Tom Farley by Mashable, the interest in the crypto-currency goes back much farther.

Farley first came to know of Bitcoin in late 2012 and early 2013, when the crypto-currency was experiencing incredible price swings. Shortly after he was approached by two men who wanted to build a Bitcoin exchange, which inspired him to spend a weekend researching Bitcoin.

"I left at the end of that weekend thinking this thing might have legs," he told Mashable. "We need to keep an eye on this stuff."

A year ago, he approached Coinbase to prepare an investment in the company and has since thought about more ways the famous financial exchange could get involved in the digital currency. "We’re willing to make some investments and even take on some risk earlier in the life cycle of a new technology than some of our competitors," he says.

"The benefit is when we get it right, we get it real right. When we get it wrong, the idea is to get to that answer as quickly as possible and move on."
— – Farley