Nasdaq CEO hopeful IPOs will decide up in 2023, requires extra crypto regulation

Adena Friedman, chief govt officer of Nasdaq Inc, stated on Wednesday she expects a quiet first half of 2023 for preliminary public choices as traders stay cautious, however is hopeful exercise will decide up within the second half of the 12 months.

There are at the moment about 200 firms within the pipeline for preliminary public choices on the Nasdaq, which is beneath the vary of the previous couple of years of 250 to 300, Friedman stated throughout an interview on the Reuters NEXT convention.

Final 12 months was a banner 12 months for IPOs at Nasdaq with over 750 new listings, fueled largely by the growth in particular objective acquisition firms (SPACs), however that exercise has slowed to a trickle as excessive inflation and rising rates of interest have soured market sentiment and SPACs have drawn regulatory scrutiny.

Nasdaq had 143 IPOs within the first 9 months of 2022, versus 557 over the primary three quarters of 2021.
Friedman additionally stated she anticipates Nasdaq’s cryptocurrency custody enterprise, Nasdaq Digital Belongings, which it introduced in September, to launch within the first half of 2023, pending regulatory approval.

Nasdaq has been concerned within the cryptocurrency area for a number of years, offering buying and selling and surveillance know-how to digital asset exchanges, and Friedman stated the area must be extra extremely regulated with a purpose to acquire traction with institutional traders.

“Now could be the time for regulation to catch up and be sure that as we go ahead, to have security and soundness, however we additionally permit for innovation and a nimble ecosystem,” she stated, including Nasdaq has been an innovator for 50 years in a extremely regulated trade.

Cryptocurrencies have been beneath strain this 12 months after a string of excessive profile bankruptcies at crypto lenders and exchanges, the largest being FTX, which collapsed after merchants pulled $6 billion from the platform in three days and rival change Binance deserted a rescue deal.

FTX’s failure has left an estimated 1 million collectors dealing with losses totaling billions of {dollars}.

Nasdaq has additionally made a giant push into anti-financial crimes software program, with its $2.75 billion acquisition of Verafin, introduced in December 2020.

Friedman stated she believes Nasdaq’s fast-growing anti-financial crime unit might develop into a $1 billion-a-year enterprise, thrice its present income.