Atlas ATS logo
With the SEC’s rules on bitcoin still unclear, the NSX has a great deal of flexibility on how it handles bitcoin-related services. The move is expected to greatly reduce the delays in the regulatory approval process seen by SecondMarket and the Winklevoss twins’ bitcoin trust. Once the rules are finalized, Atlas will become the first bitcoin marketplace in the U.S. under “quasi-government” regulation, being indirectly overseen by SEC.
In a story in today’s Wall Street Journal, reporter Michael J. Casey explained how SEC regulation might interact with Atlas on the exchange.
It isn’t clear how the SEC, which doesn’t regulate bitcoin, might respond to Atlas’s use of the National Stock Exchange’s SRO status to earn this exemption. The SEC declined to comment for this article. … In a statement, Atlas said its rule book would be based on SEC-approved rules used by U.S. stock and option exchanges. These establish requirements for record books, the segregation of customer accounts, security of assets and other standards.
The NSX appears to be a fairly good fit for Atlas and bitcoin. The small-volume, all-digital exchange has struggled for marketshare for decades, and was acquired by competitor CBOE in 2011. As the first exchange to offer bitcoin-related services at a time when hundreds of millions of venture capital dollars are flooding into the cryptocurrency field, the partnership could be a huge financial and marketing coup for NSX.
