Many players are preparing the field for the arrival of institutional investors. They are the best hope to see crypto market over 1000 Billion dollars and Bitcoin over 20000$. Although future is of course uncertain big money flow can have really great effects on the crypto market.
“Many crypto assets (particularly ICO tokens) may be treated as securities in some cases,” Uphold Chief Executive Officer Adrian Steckel said in a statement. “Through Uphold’s new securities division, the digital currency platform would be able to offer sales and trading of ICO tokens and fractional equities and provide other exchange services,” the company said.
This is very interesting: as exchanges appoach traditional financial market, they need of some new technicalities. New layers, new operative divisions, new contracts and professional nets: buying an exchange is not only owning a platform. More important than this, you buy its organization, what we commonly define its "intangible" asset. So, while negotiating with SEC and all other regulators, you can use the strenght and skills of more traditional organizations.
Despite a crackdown by the U.S., China and other countries, companies have already raised more than $9 billion through ICOs in 2018, more than double what they did all of last year
Also, many ICOs are securities. A "security" is a tradable financial asset that, in short terms, "guarantees some rights to its owner". The securities are heavy regulated and so traditional market skills are really needed to operate. Yo can find more informations here about security https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_(finance)
Uphold’s move follows similar acquisitions by larger U.S. cryptocurrency exchanges. Coinbase Inc. said earlier this month that it’s buying a trio of firms including a broker-dealer to offer customers blockchain-based securities. The Coinbase announcement came hours after Bloomberg reported that Circle Internet Financial Ltd. intends to pursue registration as a brokerage and trading venue with the SEC so it can help investors buy and sell tokens deemed to be securities.
Of course, the tendency descripted above is common among the various scrypto exchanges. By themselves, crypto exchange doesn't guarantee the security standards that institutional investors need of for investing in crypto market. But acquiring traditional players with stronger skills in negotiation structures's developement can greatly help.
You can read the complete article on https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-27/broker-dealer-jnk-to-be-bought-by-crypto-marketplace-uphold
With all those developement, we can hope for late 2018 to be better than last weeks. Let's see what happens!