CEO of Nasdaq, Adena Friedman. Photo by Bloomberg

‘I’m Not Going to Wade Into That One’: Nasdaq’s CEO on the Downturn, Crypto and ‘Super Apps’

Photo: CEO of Nasdaq, Adena Friedman. Photo by Bloomberg

2022 has been a brutal year for the markets. But what about the markets business? With initial public offerings slumping to the lowest levels since 2009, I sat down with a woman who sees it all very up close—Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman.

Friedman runs one of the world’s most important public markets, and she is also a software CEO, overseeing a software business that powers more than 100 exchanges around the world—one of which she tells me will soon be fully in the cloud. Only a quarter of the firm’s $3.5 billion in net revenue last year came from trading.

We covered a lot of ground in the interview, from where Nasdaq sees opportunity around crypto to the state of the IPO markets. Edited excerpts are below.

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