The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Monday announced plans to introduce a blockchain-based 24-hour trading platform for tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds later this year.
NYSE executives said the project would use their technology to connect buyers and sellers, combined with private blockchain networks, to enable trading of tokenized securities in real time. The new platform will enable tokenized trading experiences, including 24/7 trading, instant settlement, dollar-sized orders, and stablecoin-based funding.
“Supporting tokenized securities is a critical step in ICE’s strategy to leverage on-chain market infrastructure for trading, settlement, custody and capital formation in the new era of global finance,” said Michael Blaugrund, vice president of strategic initiatives at Intercontinental Exchange Inc., owner of the NYSE.
The platform will power a new NYSE site that supports trading fungible tokenized stocks with traditionally issued securities as well as natively issued tokens as digital securities, it said in the press release. Tokenized shareholders will participate in traditional shareholder dividends and governance rights. The site is designed to align with established market structure principles, with distribution via non-discriminatory access to all qualified brokers.
The company said it is currently seeking approval from regulators for the 24/7 trading platform and plans to launch it later this year.
The rollout of the NYSE tokenized securities platform is one element of ICE’s broader digital strategy, which includes preparing its clearing infrastructure to support 24/7 trading and potentially integrating tokenized collateral.
ICE said it is currently working with banks including BNY (NYSE: BK) and Citi (NYSE: C) to support token deposits into ICE’s clearinghouses to help clearing members move and manage money outside of traditional bank hours, meet margin requirements, and meet funding requirements across different jurisdictions and time zones.
The NYSE’s main competitor in the United States, Nasdaq, revealed in December that it plans to facilitate trading of stocks and exchange-traded products (ETPs) virtually around the clock, in an effort to adapt to the increasingly global nature of financial markets and investor behavior.
