NYSE Enters the Tokenization Race

America's Oldest Exchange Builds 24/7 On-Chain Trading Infrastructure

The New York Stock Exchange announced Monday it is developing a blockchain-based platform for tokenized securities, positioning the world's largest equities venue to operate around the clock with instant settlement. The move transforms what was theoretical into infrastructure planning: America's 232-year-old financial institution is building on-chain market systems.

"For more than two centuries, the NYSE has transformed the way markets operate," said NYSE Group President Lynn Martin. "We are leading the industry toward fully on-chain solutions, grounded in the unmatched protections and high regulatory standards that position us to marry trust with state-of-the-art technology."

The platform will combine NYSE's Pillar matching engine with blockchain-based post-trade systems, supporting settlement and custody across multiple blockchains. No specific networks were named. Subject to regulatory approval, a new NYSE venue will support both tokenized shares fungible with traditionally issued securities and tokens natively issued as digital securities.

The Institutional Stack Takes Shape

NYSE parent company Intercontinental Exchange is working with BNY and Citi to support tokenized deposits across ICE's clearinghouses—enabling clearing members to transfer and manage money outside traditional banking hours, meet margin obligations, and accommodate funding requirements across jurisdictions and time zones.

This represents the infrastructure layer that crypto-native platforms lack. NYSE brings regulatory relationships, banking partnerships, and clearing infrastructure that took decades to build. The question is whether that institutional weight becomes competitive advantage or unnecessary overhead.

"Supporting tokenized securities is a pivotal step in ICE's strategy to operate on-chain market infrastructure for trading, settlement, custody, and capital formation in the new era of global finance," said ICE VP of Strategic Initiatives Michael Blaugrund.

Competitive Dynamics

NYSE's announcement follows Nasdaq's September 2025 filing with the SEC to enable tokenized trading of equities and exchange-traded products on its platform. The approaches differ meaningfully: Nasdaq proposes trading tokenized securities through its existing exchange, with dealers choosing between tokenized or conventional settlement post-trade. NYSE plans a separate venue dedicated to tokenized securities.

The Depository Trust Company received SEC no-action relief on December 11, 2025, clearing the way for its pilot tokenization program expected to launch in the second half of 2026. DTC's approval enables token movement between registered wallets at any time—not just during traditional business hours—with near real-time tracking through its LedgerScan system.

Together, these developments suggest institutional tokenization infrastructure will be operational within 12-18 months. The clearing plumbing that critics argued was missing now exists in preliminary form.

The Market Opportunity

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink and COO Rob Goldstein called tokenization "the next major evolution in market infrastructure" in a December column for The Economist. The asset management giant's BUIDL tokenized money market fund has reached approximately $2.8 billion in assets, the largest tokenized fund on the market.

Industry projections for tokenized real-world assets range from $13 trillion to $16 trillion by 2030, up from roughly $2 trillion today. A 300% surge in real-world asset tokenization over the past 20 months suggests acceleration is already underway.

Fink has argued tokenization could do for finance what the early internet did for information—comparing the current moment to 1996, when Amazon had sold just $16 million in books and three of today's "Magnificent Seven" tech giants hadn't been founded.

What Changes

For investors: 24/7 trading access, instant settlement, and stablecoin-based funding eliminate traditional market hours constraints. Weekend positioning, overnight risk management, and global coordination become possible.

For issuers: Tokenized shareholders retain dividend rights and governance participation identical to conventional shareholders. The technology wrapper doesn't change the underlying security.

For institutions: The clearing infrastructure supporting tokenized collateral and cross-time-zone funding changes how margin and liquidity are managed. BNY and Citi's involvement signals that traditional banking rails are integrating with on-chain systems rather than being bypassed.

Strategic Implications

NYSE's announcement completes a pattern: every major U.S. market infrastructure provider now has tokenization initiatives in development. The question shifts from whether tokenization will happen to how quickly regulatory approval processes complete and what market share distribution emerges.

The competitive positioning matters. NYSE's separate venue approach allows experimentation without disrupting existing market structure. Nasdaq's integrated approach leverages current liquidity pools but requires more complex system modifications. DTC's centralized role as the U.S. securities depository gives it gatekeeper influence regardless of which exchange approach wins.

Coinbase and Robinhood have announced tokenized equity products for 2026—Coinbase targeting Q1, Robinhood already serving European users. Crypto-native exchanges are moving toward traditional securities while traditional exchanges move toward blockchain infrastructure. The convergence is accelerating.

For institutional investors, the calculus changes when tokenized securities offer 24/7 liquidity through regulated venues backed by established clearing infrastructure. The infrastructure objection—that tokenization lacked the operational foundation for institutional adoption—loses validity when NYSE, Nasdaq, and DTC are building it.

No timeline was provided for NYSE's platform launch. Regulatory approval processes typically require 12-18 months for novel market structures. But the direction is clear: blockchain settlement is coming to America's core equity markets, and the institutions that defined traditional finance are building it.