洲际交易所CEO：纽交所代币化推进中，AI算力期货将落地

[music] Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio, news.

I'm Tyler Kendall here at the CFTC and I'm joined now by the chair and CEO of the Intercontinental Exchange, Jeffreer. Mr. Thank you so much for joining us here on Bloomberg and you were there at the White House yesterday. I saw you there with President Trump for this event where he was really trying to push for the passage of the Clarity Act. I'm wondering if you can outline for me what would passage of clarity unlock for you?

Um well, one of two things. It would obviously provide legal certainty for areas that are now somewhat undefined. Um but notwithstanding uh what the U Congress is doing, we have been uh moving forward to try to tokenize the New York Stock Exchange to try to extend its hours to try to change its pricing model um under conventional laws so that we have a parallel track going on um in order to move our business forward.

Can you give us updates on those tokenization efforts?

Um it's with the uh SEC right now and um and it's making progress. This is this particular SEC wants to uh to not stifle innovation. Um it's got a [snorts] more challenging rule set to deal with uh without the Clarity Act, but not not notwithstanding there is a process there for innovation exemptions.

The other side of this remitt of course is prediction markets. I found this quote from you. You've described prediction markets as having real economic utility. Do you see ICE eventually listing its own event contracts or is this purely about that data layer uh owning that like with Poly Market and then letting those platforms do the prediction markets?

A bit of both. We've long had markets where um uh you're asking uh market participants where do you think an index will settle which in a in a way is a prediction market. Um and uh historically those have been very um obvious indexes that uh that define an industry. What uh the prediction markets have done is really drill down on very very minor minute um uh localized uh ideas and uh and I think that works better for those people because it's just a constant listing and dellisting um of contracts which is really not how my universe Wall Street operates.

Can you give us an update on uh your relationship with Poly Market and and just how it's going?

Um sure. We have a great relationship. Um we we are an investor in it and uh we partly invested in it because we were interested in their technology. Um they are truly a blockchainbased uh system and uh we were hoping for technology transfer which they've been helping us with and at the same time they had regulatory issues. they really needed to get to uh compliance in the United States and we're long uh versed in how to do that and so there's been this mutual transfer of uh information.

Um we're not a venture capital firm. Um we put money into it simply so that we had connectivity with them and um and in that regard the investment itself has done well but uh but it's really this underlying exchange of information that we are working on.

Okay. So that might answer my next question because Poly Market is looking to raise capital at a $20 billion valuation. So I was wondering if you were going to add to your stake or keep it capped at I I think 1.6 billion.

Yes, we're in at 1.6 billion. We we'll look at it um if it if it will help the round in order to have our impetour on it. Uh we always uh are interested. We we've done two rounds with them, but the reality is we're not a venture firm. We're really here to uh [snorts] to have this transfer of information and uh and expertise. I did want to ask you because you're looking at creating a futures market when it comes to AI compute power.

Why do you think that this is the right financial tool for lenders or these tech companies in the AI space to hedge against their costs?

Um it's a good question. First of all, um the CFTC is going to do a a broad, you know, information uh gathering about uh that very question to see where the whole industry is, which which will be interesting. We um we are the world's uh electricity market. Um I actually started the company to be an electricity exchange. So it's it's it's in our DNA and um and if you think about compute it today it's electricity and possibly chips on the input and then on the output to these things called tokens which is basically the way you pay for compute.

Um and so somewhere in that amalgamation I suspect is going to be trading and risk transfer whether it's uh buying the inputs to the power plant and and and data center or whether it's buying the output uh how the models work uh I think is something that we'll discover with the with this um inquiry.

Well, the CFTC chair just told me that he seemed rather um excited about this idea. So, I'm curious, has uh have you gotten any indication when it comes to the timeline for this? Have you had a push back a timeline? When are you planning to if you get that regulatory approval to move forward?

Yeah, we've announced that we intend to do this at the same time the CFTC has announced that they uh want to do this survey. And so, we think they're going to be relatively efficient and quick um and and it will nest with the timeline that we will have for launching. But we're also interested to see what the market thinks about these ideas. um you know will the hyperscalers want to hedge or or you know that's not historically where they go.

We've seen um some of the hyperscalers and and and foundation model people are starting to advertise for trading um to get personnel in there. So um uh it does feel like you know there's something to this but uh I think we'll know you know within the next maybe 90 or 120 days.

Well I was going to ask what type of clients have expressed the most interest in this? Um it's everyday people honestly. It's uh yeah all about like my company is you know had a a zero budget for tokens for uh 2026 and now we're we're a big shop with most of the foundation models operating. Our costs are going up. We're trying to figure out what's the return on investment. And every CEO I talk to, and we talk to a lot of them because of the New York Stock Exchange, is going through this process of of um am I going to use one of these big um uh foundation models?

Am I going to use an and open- source model or open weight model? Um am I going to which cloud am I going to be in? So those are all, you know, issues that that business is wrestling with right now. And we're wondering is there a way that we can help them by having a risk transfer through hedging. If I try to streamline this to news of the day and we talk a lot about the AI buildout in Washington, we also talk a lot about the conflict in Iran and whenever there's updates um the markets are just watching it so closely because when news breaks over the weekend or any events related to the energy markets.

There is notable trading in these offshore platforms when it comes to 247 oil futures. What is your level of concern with these products and are you seeing any direct impact? Um, we're watching it closely. Maybe that's the political way to say it. Um, the the energy industry itself is not set up to trade on weekends. Uh, the banking system is closed. Yeah.

And so, um, if there is a high price spike up or down, um, there's just isn't the infrastructure right there to manage the risk on the weekends. So, let's call it institutional money is not there yet for 24 by7 365. That said, part of what's going on, you know, underneath this is is this movement towards blockchain, um, which is really just a rewiring of a banking system. It's really just the ability to move money on the internet, uh, 24 by7 365.

And I do think that um uh that's either going to urge the banks and and the Fed to open the Fed funds wire and keep it open around the clock or we're going to have alternative rails through blockchain. One of those two will happen. And when that happens, then I think you'l