Jamaica Stock Exchange Soon Launching a Limited Pilot to Trade BTC and ETH

By Kapil Gauhar

The JSE (Jamaica Stock Exchange) will soon launch a limited pilot for trading Bitcoin and Ethereum.

In August last year, the principal stock exchange of Jamaica with an associate member of the WFE (World Federation of Exchanges), partnered with a FinTech firm ‘Blockstation’ to demonstrate the complete lifecycle of the cryptocurrency ecosystem.

This year in January, the two firms successfully completed a live cryptocurrency trading pilot, that incorporated participation from the JSE’s broker-dealer members as well as the Jamaica Central Securities Depository (JCSD).

In its recent announcement, the JSE said that it had signed an agreement with Blockstation aiming to continue developing tools for the trading of virtual assets as well as security tokens in a regulated yet secured environment. The JSE is planning to leverage the new agreement for supporting international SME (Small and Medium Enterprises) by providing them with a streamlined process to raise capital in a compliant manner through STOs.

Also, the agreement will help in creating an inclusive, regulated market which is more accessible to institutions, and non-accredited investors who would be excluded from profitable opportunities in the cryptocurrency space.

Marlene Street Forrest, the Managing Director of the JSE, said –

“This is an unprecedented opportunity for the JSE to diversify its product offerings and attract new listings and inbound investments. We welcome retail investors and companies both locally and around the globe to trade digital assets under a safe, efficient and transparent regulatory framework.”

A limited pilot for trading BTC and Ether, as part of the agreement, through the JSE and participating broker-dealer will be launched shortly.

Jai Waterman, the co-founder and Chief Enterprise Architect of Blockstation, said –

“We are incredibly excited to reach this milestone in our partnership with the JSE, bringing digital assets including cryptocurrency and security tokens to mainstream investors. Digital assets are the future of capital markets, and our turn-key solution paves the way for traditional financial institutions to easily adopt this new, game-changing asset class. We look forward to being part of the evolution of finance going forward.”