The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) has launched a Bitcoin index that provides the price of Bitcoin as part of its Global Index Feed.

Called NYXBT, the index will provide the price of one Bitcoin to the United States dollar as it is valued daily at 4 p.m. GMT.

“Bitcoin values are quickly becoming a data point that our customers want to follow as they consider transacting, trading or investing with this emerging asset class,” NYSE Group President Thomas Farley said in a statement. “As a global index leader and administrator of ICE LIBOR, ICE Futures U.S. Dollar Index and many other notable benchmarks, we are pleased to bring transparency to this market.”

The number used in the index will initially be taken from Bitcoin exchange Coinbase Inc.; of note, the NYSE is a minority investor in Coinbase having participated in the firms Series C round back in January.

The exchange did add that they would continue to review the index and would consider adding data from other exchanges in the future.

Great for Bitcoin

While it could be argued that the path to Bitcoin legitimacy has been paved by a number of milestones, none the least Coinbase’s last round that along with the NSYE included a number of high profile finance companies, this new index is a great milestone for the cryptocurrency, and it’s great for Bitcoin.

“We are now going to use our name, reputation and global index provider stature to provide Bitcoin values that the rest of the market can look to” Farley told Mashable, and that sums up the significance of the move extremely well.

The only possible criticism of the Index is that it only pulls data from one data source, whereas indexes such as ICE LIBOR, ICE Futures U.S. Dollar Index, and others pull data from multiple points to give an accurate across market view, but it’s a start, and it is welcomed none the less.

The index will initially be available for free from the NYSE website before becoming a subscriber only product.

Image credit: rolfkleef/Flickr/CC by 2.0