Nasdaq Releases 2024-25 Cryptocurrency Regulation Guide

    Nasdaq risk platform for capital markets
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    Nasdaq Trade Surveillance (SMARTS)

    See Market Abuse the Way Sophisticated Traders do— Across Every Market and Product.

    Sophisticated traders hide schemes across markets and products, exploiting complex relationships to dodge detection. Nasdaq Trade Surveillance matches their complexity with comprehensive monitoring that exposes suspicious activity—no matter how well hidden.

    Why Nasdaq Trade Surveillance

    Defensible Detection

    Trusted by 190+ banks and regulators and 50+ exchanges, Nasdaq Trade Surveillance unifies market adaptive analytics and investigations to detect sophisticated manipulation and protect market integrity.

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    Complete Market Visibility Across All Asset Classes

    Monitor trading activity seamlessly across 200+ venues and 10+ asset classes from a unified platform. Our surveillance framework integrates equities, derivatives, fixed income, FX, commodities, crypto, and energy markets—providing the cross-market and cross-product detection capabilities essential for identifying sophisticated manipulation schemes that traditional siloed systems miss.

    Monitor trading activity seamlessly across 200+ venues and 10+ asset classes from a unified platform. Our surveillance framework integrates equities, derivatives, fixed income, FX, commodities, crypto, and energy markets—providing the cross-market and cross-product detection capabilities essential for identifying sophisticated manipulation schemes that traditional siloed systems miss.

    Benefits

    See why 84% of firms look externally to support their surveillance monitoring.

    Analytics that Capture Market Reality

    Our advanced analytics operate on market impact rather than isolated behaviors, analyzing orderbook dynamics, timing relationships, and cascading market effects. With 200+ configurable scenarios covering everything from cross-product spoofing to cross-venue trading strategies, our detection capabilities automatically adapt to changing market conditions while reducing false positives.

    Investigation Tools Built for Complex Market Patterns

    Transform detection into action with our integrated Workbench. Our integrated Workbench consolidates all alert data, context, and evidence into a single, intuitive workspace. When alerts span markets and products, analysts need powerful tools to quickly show what happened and why it happened.

    • Replay: Reconstruct the order book and watch market manipulation unfold across multiple instruments in real-time
    • Spread View: See participant activity trade-by-trade across venues with complete market context
    • Depth View: Visualize order flow patterns within the broader market structure
    • Entity View: Track a participant's complete trading footprint across all markets and products

    End-to-End Program Management

    Complete your surveillance workflow with comprehensive alert management, disposition tracking, automated reporting capabilities and data quality reporting.

    • Audit Trails across all markets and products
    • Calibration tools
    • Regulatory reporting features necessary for demonstrating compliance with global regulations

    Asset Classes

    The most extensive coverage, without question.

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    Cross-asset, Cross-Market

    200+ markets and data feeds sourced, hosted & maintained by us – so you can do what you do best. 

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    Equities

    Access coverage of 120+ equities markets.

    Futures & Options

    Gain visibility across 50+ futures and options markets. 

    Commodities

    Works with contracts spanning 40 global energy and commodity markets.

    Crypto

    Help support the stability and integrity of the emerging digital assets ecosystem with comprehensive coverage for crypto spot trading. 

    FX

    Monitor foreign exchange trading for nefarious activities – including those outlined in the Global Code of Conduct. 

    Fixed Income

    Tailor your surveillance approach to the unique trading attributes of Fixed Income with coverage for manipulation across related products, RFQ frontrunning, and D2D and D2C trading flows. 

    Dark Pools

    Dual capacities to surveil multilateral dark pools such as ATSs and MTFs, as well as internalized trading, such as liquidity aggregators or systematic internalizers.

    Energy

    Monitor across physical and financial energy markets with  alerts that are tailored to meet regulatory requirements laid out by REMIT, MAR, FERC, and CFTC. 

    Precious Metals

    Surveil OTC precious metals markets for misdeeds including benchmark fixes, trading-with-knowledge, and unusual pricing. 

    Equities

    Access coverage of 120+ equities markets.

    Futures & Options

    Gain visibility across 50+ futures and options markets. 

    Commodities

    Works with contracts spanning 40 global energy and commodity markets.

    Crypto

    Help support the stability and integrity of the emerging digital assets ecosystem with comprehensive coverage for crypto spot trading. 

    FX

    Monitor foreign exchange trading for nefarious activities – including those outlined in the Global Code of Conduct. 

    Fixed Income

    Tailor your surveillance approach to the unique trading attributes of Fixed Income with coverage for manipulation across related products, RFQ frontrunning, and D2D and D2C trading flows. 

    Dark Pools

    Dual capacities to surveil multilateral dark pools such as ATSs and MTFs, as well as internalized trading, such as liquidity aggregators or systematic internalizers.

    Energy

    Monitor across physical and financial energy markets with  alerts that are tailored to meet regulatory requirements laid out by REMIT, MAR, FERC, and CFTC. 

    Precious Metals

    Surveil OTC precious metals markets for misdeeds including benchmark fixes, trading-with-knowledge, and unusual pricing. 

    Are you prepared for the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation?

    With MiCA scheduled to go into effect in the EU, firms will encounter stricter surveillance requirements once the regulation is implemented. See how Nasdaq can support you in preparing before the deadline.

    With MiCA scheduled to go into effect in the EU, firms will encounter stricter surveillance requirements once the regulation is implemented. See how Nasdaq can support you in preparing before the deadline.

    Thought Leadership

    Ensure you have the latest information to keep your firm safe.

    2024-25 Nasdaq Cryptocurrency Regulation Guide

    Read the 2024-25 Nasdaq Cryptocurrency Regulation Guide to see:

    • A breakdown of 5 key regulatory trends
    • Updates from global organizations like FATF, FSB and IOSCO
    • A snapshot of regional frameworks and compliance challenges

    Read the 2024-25 Nasdaq Cryptocurrency Regulation Guide to see:

    • A breakdown of 5 key regulatory trends
    • Updates from global organizations like FATF, FSB and IOSCO
    • A snapshot of regional frameworks and compliance challenges

    Additional Resources

    Whitepaper

    Wash Trading in Crypto Markets: What Financial Institutions Need to Know Now

    This whitepaper delves into how global regulators are cracking down on crypto wash trading, a manipulative practice that distorts market integrity, and urges financial institutions to adopt advanced surveillance tools to detect and prevent such behavior in increasingly complex digital markets.

    Survey Report

    2024 Nasdaq Global Compliance Survey

    In collaboration with Chartis Research, Nasdaq surveyed 94 compliance professionals to determine their top challenges in the year ahead, the role of emerging technologies, the power of data scientists and technology staff, and the trends of regulatory-focused investments.

    Product Content

    Buyer’s Guide: Key Considerations for Your Surveillance Solution

    Read our newest buyer's guide to learn about key considerations to help assess the solution that best suits your firm.

    Impact

    The benchmark for T+1 surveillance.

    30+
    Years of surveillance expertise

    190+
    Clients

    25+
    Awards

    3,000+
    Live sites

    Latest Awards

    You’re in Good Company

    See in-depth surveillance coverage in action.

    Request a Demo of Nasdaq Trade Surveillance

    Complete the form to request a free demo of our Nasdaq Trade Surveillance solution.

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    Track and disrupt financial crime as it occurs across multiple markets. 

    Track and disrupt financial crime as it occurs across multiple markets. 

    Anti-Financial Crime

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    Nasdaq Compliance Hub

    Stay ahead in the rapidly evolving global market landscape by navigating the latest market abuse regulations and complex market dynamics across multiple jurisdictions.

    Stay ahead in the rapidly evolving global market landscape by navigating the latest market abuse regulations and complex market dynamics across multiple jurisdictions.

    Nasdaq Anti-Financial Crime Solutions for Cryptocurrency

    Effectively mitigate risks across traditional and digital assets, fiat and crypto, and on and off-chain activities with a comprehensive suite of crypto-specific monitoring capabilities.

    Effectively mitigate risks across traditional and digital assets, fiat and crypto, and on and off-chain activities with a comprehensive suite of crypto-specific monitoring capabilities.

    Verafin: BSA/AML Compliance and Management

    Strengthen regulatory compliance and enhance your ability to detect, investigate and report potentially suspicious activity with targeted analytics and end-to-end BSA/AML solutions.

    Strengthen regulatory compliance and enhance your ability to detect, investigate and report potentially suspicious activity with targeted analytics and end-to-end BSA/AML solutions.

    Verafin: Fraud Detection and Management

    Understand how participants are fraudulently presenting themselves on your exchange.

    Understand how participants are fraudulently presenting themselves on your exchange.

    Resource library

    More Information

    Support

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Yes. Throughout our almost 30-year history, we have continued to innovate and adapt our technology to effectively monitor new markets and asset classes. Our coverage now spans over 200 markets and 300+ behaviors – spanning multiple asset classes and markets, including crypto. 

    Nasdaq Trade Surveillance is one of the most robust surveillance tools on the market. Nasdaq Trade Surveillance presents a far-ranging suite of features, preparing you to track crime across multiple regions and asset types by looking at all market and trading data – never sampling. Nasdaq Trade Surveillance also benefits from Nasdaq’s unique position as a longtime global operator of numerous exchanges and the expertise garnered from monitoring our own 28 markets. 

    Surveillance is increasingly moving from an optional, but pragmatic, component to an essential need. Being proactive about surveillance means not only will you be less likely to incur a costly fee down the line, but you will also deter financial misdeeds within your firm, ensuring that your employees are adhering to regulatory guidelines and preventing potential reputational damage.