If a little over a year ago someone told you that Bloomberg would be displaying bitcoin prices on finance terminals, you probably wouldn’t believe it.
But it’s happened. The financial news network announced Wednesday that they’ve added bitcoin prices to their assortment of financial utilities which many in the financial sector have come to rely on.
Says the company (who acknowledges the widely varying opinions of bitcoin and digital currency):
[blockquote style=”2″]Regardless of your position, virtual currencies have become increasingly interesting to investors and financial market participants around the world. That’s why we are pleased to announce today that Bloomberg is providing bitcoin pricing to our 320,000+ global subscribers.[/blockquote]
The prices are available on the Bloomberg Professional service as ticker VCCY.
Subscribers should type VCCY<GO> in order to view data — which comes from the Coinbase brokerage and the Kraken digital currency exchange.
Bloomberg says they have also added news and social media posts from over 100,000 sources, keeping investors in the loop.
The company listed three main reasons as to why they are incorporating bitcoin prices into their existing platform.
The first, they say, is transparency:
[blockquote style=”2″]Bloomberg was founded to provide transparency to opaque financial markets and we believe all markets, even digital currencies, greatly benefit from increased transparency[/blockquote]
Client demand also played a part in getting this going:
[blockquote style=”2″]Serving the needs and objectives of clients has always been a guiding principle of Bloomberg. Clients are increasingly interested in bitcoin and other digital currencies and are looking for tools to better monitor developments in these markets.[/blockquote]
And finally, Bloomberg lists innovation as the third reason:
[blockquote style=”2″]While bitcoin and other virtual currency markets are still nascent, they represent an interesting intersection of finance and technology. Given that Bloomberg sits squarely at that intersection, providing pricing for this underdeveloped market is a natural fit for us.[/blockquote]
For bitcoin users, this further legitimizes the use of digital currency. The community is already seeing major retailers adopt bitcoin (see Overstock.com).
What will be the next stop?