Jan 19 (Reuters) – Intercontinental Exchange said on Monday that it had developed a platform for trading and on-chain settlement of tokenized securities, in a move to capitalize on global demand for U.S. equities.
NYSE’s new digital platform – for which it will seek regulatory approvals – will enable 24/7 operations, instant settlement, orders sized in dollar amounts, and stablecoin-based funding, the exchange said.
Investor appetite for nonstop trading in U.S. stocks has spiked in recent years, which has prompted regulators to introduce new rules and approve proposals from major exchanges to enable trading beyond normal market hours.
Intercontinental Exchange’s move also underscores how traditional market operators are testing blockchain-based infrastructure to ease long-standing frictions in equity markets.
“Tokenization is not a fad. It is a technology that solves problems. And there’s a long list of possibilities it opens up,” said Campbell Harvey, a professor of finance at Duke University.
“Tokenized stocks are probably the lowest hanging fruit,” he added.
Nasdaq, home to some of the biggest tech companies in the world, is seeking approval for stocks to trade 23 hours a day, five days a week, Reuters reported in December last year.
Major brokerages such as Robinhood and Charles Schwab, as well as exchange operator Cboe Global, have also extended trading hours for stocks in recent years.
The exchange is working with banks including BNY and Citigroup to support tokenized deposits.
(Reporting by Anshuman Tripathy and Niket Nishant in Bengaluru, Editing by Louise Heavens)
