#Nasdaq
33 articles tagged #Nasdaq — curated RWA tokenization coverage.
Jackson McGonagle – Meet the Crypto Man Set to Power Nasdaq’s Tokenization Push
Nasdaq has appointed Jackson McGonagle as AVP of Capital Markets Digital Assets Strategy to accelerate the exchange's integration of blockchain technology into core market infrastructure. McGonagle brings extensive experience from roles at NYSE Euronext, Binance, Fidelity Digital Assets, and Re7 Capital, positioning him to bridge the gap between traditional finance and digital assets. This strategic hire follows Nasdaq's recent efforts to modernize capital markets, including a July production event with the DTCC that successfully utilized tokenized assets within existing market frameworks. Nasdaq is further consolidating its digital capabilities under a new Digital Liquidity Networks unit, which integrates liquidity platforms and tokenization solutions. The exchange is also expanding its surveillance reach, recently providing its market monitoring technology to the prediction-market platform Kalshi. These developments signal that Nasdaq is moving beyond experimental phases to embed blockchain directly into the machinery of global finance. By focusing on infrastructure rather than separate blockchain markets, Nasdaq aims to make tokenization a foundational element of its capital markets business. This shift underscores a broader institutional trend where traditional market operators prioritize the modernization of settlement and surveillance systems through digital asset technology.
Vanguard, Wellington test tokenized MMF collateral on Canton via Nasdaq Calypso
Vanguard and Wellington Management have successfully completed a trial using tokenized money market fund (MMF) shares as collateral on the Canton Network. This pilot utilized Nasdaq’s Calypso collateral management platform to integrate digital assets into a unified pool alongside traditional financial instruments. By leveraging Nasdaq technology to issue these tokens, the firms demonstrated that digital assets can be managed through existing institutional workflows without requiring separate systems. This integration streamlines critical processes such as margin calls, eligibility checks, and post-trade updates within a single interface. The trial highlights a significant shift toward operational efficiency, as institutional adoption often hinges on minimizing the need for new, parallel infrastructure. By proving that tokenized MMF shares can function seamlessly within established collateral management systems, the project addresses a major barrier to the broader adoption of RWA tokenization. This development underscores the growing maturity of the Canton Network as a privacy-enabled blockchain for complex institutional financial operations.
24-Hour Trading on US Exchanges: What the SEC Roundtable Means for Tokenized Stocks
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has scheduled a roundtable for September 17, 2026, to discuss the operational and resilience requirements for implementing 24-hour trading across American equity markets. This initiative directly challenges the primary value proposition of tokenized stocks on platforms like Kraken and Binance, which currently offer continuous trading that traditional exchanges lack. While the SEC roundtable is not a formal vote, it signifies a major shift as traditional venues like Nasdaq and NYSE Arca have already received approval to extend their trading hours into night sessions. As traditional exchanges move toward near-continuous operation, the competitive edge of tokenized assets—specifically their ability to trade outside standard market hours—is being significantly compressed. Tokenized stocks, such as xStocks and bStocks, provide fractional ownership and on-chain settlement, but they rely on the issuer holding the underlying equity, meaning investors face issuer risk rather than direct shareholder rights. The speed at which traditional exchanges successfully implement these extended hours will determine how much of the 'time advantage' remains for crypto-native tokenized stock products. Ultimately, this transition forces investors to weigh the remaining benefits of tokenization, such as weekend access, against the inherent risks of holding derivative claims rather than direct equity.
Custodia Bank CEO: All Stocks Will Be Tokenized Within 12 to 24 Months
Custodia Bank CEO Caitlin Long predicts that all stocks will be tokenized and traded on major exchanges like the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq within the next 12 to 24 months. This transition is expected to fundamentally reshape financial infrastructure by shifting settlement from traditional clearinghouses to on-chain, real-time mechanisms. Long argues that this shift will inevitably force tokenized dollars into the banking system, compelling traditional institutions to adapt to new settlement tracks regardless of their current readiness. The trend is supported by the ongoing transition of traditional exchanges from pilot programs to full-scale tokenization of securities. As trading volumes for tokenized assets grow, the industry is seeing a structural reconstruction where pricing power moves toward on-chain environments. This development highlights a broader institutional push to integrate blockchain technology with legacy equity markets. Ultimately, the move toward on-chain interchangeable assets is expected to attract significant capital and pressure banks to modernize their settlement systems to remain relevant.
Tokenized equities grow to $9B
Tokenized equity markets have experienced rapid expansion, with total volume surging from $1 billion in January to $9 billion by July. This growth is largely driven by investor demand for after-hours trading, which currently accounts for 55% of Jupiter’s total tokenized equity volume. The sector saw a 207% quarter-over-quarter increase in trading volume, signaling that on-chain platforms are becoming a viable alternative to traditional exchanges. This shift in market behavior is influencing legacy infrastructure, as evidenced by Nasdaq’s proposal to implement 23-hour trading sessions starting December 6th. Major platforms like Kraken are expanding access by offering over 700 tokenized equities to European Economic Area customers, further bridging the gap between traditional and digital assets. While Robinhood continues to offer stock tokens globally, the exclusion of U.S. customers has sparked debate regarding American competitiveness in financial innovation. Ultimately, the rise of tokenized equities demonstrates a clear market preference for continuous, globalized access to U.S. stocks that traditional market hours currently fail to provide.
TruGolf to Acquire Polymath Research Inc., Bringing Tokenization Innovator to the Public Markets on Nasdaq
TruGolf has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Polymath Research Inc., a move designed to integrate advanced blockchain tokenization technology into the public markets via Nasdaq. Polymath is widely recognized for its foundational work in the security token sector, specifically through the development of the ERC-1400 standard. By bringing Polymath's intellectual property and engineering talent under the TruGolf umbrella, the combined entity aims to leverage tokenization to enhance capital formation and asset liquidity. This acquisition marks a significant transition for Polymath, moving its specialized blockchain expertise from a private research entity into a publicly traded corporate structure. The integration is expected to accelerate the adoption of compliant digital securities by providing a bridge between traditional equity markets and decentralized finance infrastructure. This development underscores the growing institutional appetite for incorporating blockchain-based asset management tools into mainstream financial operations. Ultimately, the deal signals a maturation phase for the RWA sector, where specialized tokenization firms are increasingly being absorbed by larger public companies to scale their technological utility.
Kraken Partners With Nasdaq To Build Tokenized Equity Gateway
Kraken parent company Payward has entered a strategic partnership with Nasdaq to develop an equities transformation gateway designed to bridge regulated tokenized equity markets with permissionless blockchain networks. This infrastructure will leverage Kraken’s xStocks product, which has already facilitated over $25 billion in total transaction volume and currently supports more than 85,000 unique holders. The gateway aims to enable the movement of tokenized equities between permissioned environments and open on-chain ecosystems, with a planned launch in the first half of 2027. By utilizing xStocks as the underlying infrastructure, the initiative seeks to address the current fragmentation of liquidity by allowing equities to function as interoperable collateral across various trading and lending platforms. Payward will manage essential KYC and AML compliance while serving as the primary settlement layer for Nasdaq’s issuer-sponsored equity token design. This development represents a significant shift in market structure, moving away from siloed brokerage systems toward a unified margin framework. Ultimately, the project aims to enhance capital efficiency by enabling tokenized shares to be used natively within spot, derivatives, and financing markets.
Tokenized stocks’ share of total RWA market cap rises to over 15%
Tokenized equities have experienced explosive growth, surging from approximately $2 million in June 2025 to between $2 billion and $2.5 billion by mid-July 2026. This rapid expansion, tracked by rwa.xyz, saw the category's share of the total RWA market climb significantly over the past year. Major institutional milestones, including Nasdaq's March 2026 rule approvals and the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation's (DTCC) limited production trades, have provided the regulatory clarity necessary for this growth. Platforms like Kraken with xStocks and Binance with bStocks have introduced synthetic price exposure to assets like Tesla and NVIDIA on blockchains including Ethereum and Solana. Despite reaching 1.18 million holders by August 2026, the market faces structural challenges regarding thin secondary liquidity and concentration in popular assets. The industry is now shifting focus toward deepening liquidity, enhancing market-maker relationships, and developing cross-chain bridges. Ultimately, the integration of native institutional settlement infrastructure remains the critical catalyst for the next phase of market maturity.
SEC Tokenized Stock Innovation Exemption: What It Means as Wall Street Moves On-Chain
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is developing an innovation exemption to facilitate the testing of tokenized stocks within a regulated framework. This initiative aims to provide firms with the flexibility to experiment with blockchain-based issuance, trading, and settlement while maintaining core investor protections. Major institutions like Nasdaq and the DTCC are already integrating on-chain infrastructure into established market systems to improve settlement efficiency and collateral mobility. Nasdaq received SEC approval in March 2026 to trade tokenized shares alongside traditional equities, while the DTCC successfully processed live tokenized transactions in July 2026. These developments signal a shift from experimental pilots to production-ready systems, with the DTCC planning a full Tokenization Service launch in October 2026. The SEC's proposed exemption is critical for establishing a clear regulatory path for digital securities, ensuring that tokenized assets remain subject to federal securities laws. Ultimately, this transition represents a broader modernization of U.S. capital markets, potentially enabling fractional ownership and longer trading hours while preserving institutional liquidity.
BlackRock's Fink Backs Tokenization To Widen Investor Access
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has reaffirmed his commitment to tokenization, comparing its current developmental stage to the internet in 1996. Fink emphasizes that while tokenization will not replace traditional finance immediately, it serves as a critical bridge between legacy systems and modern digital infrastructure. BlackRock currently manages nearly $150 billion in digital-linked assets, including the BUIDL fund, which stands as the world's largest tokenized fund. The firm also oversees $65 billion in stablecoin reserves and $80 billion in digital asset exchange-traded products. To facilitate broader adoption, Fink is calling for policymakers to establish clear buyer protections, counterparty-risk standards, and robust digital identity verification. This institutional push is supported by recent regulatory developments, such as the SEC's approval of a Nasdaq pilot program for tokenized share trading. Furthermore, partnerships like the one between Nasdaq and Talos for tokenized collateral demonstrate a growing industry trend toward integrating blockchain-based settlement into institutional workflows.
Nasdaq acquires LeveL Markets to boost tokenization
Nasdaq has officially acquired LeveL Markets, the third-largest alternative trading system in the United States, to bolster its digital asset infrastructure. This strategic move integrates LeveL Markets into Nasdaq's new Digital Liquidity Networks unit, which focuses on merging traditional liquidity with blockchain-based tokenization. By leveraging LeveL Markets' existing network, which serves over 300 institutional firms and processes hundreds of millions of shares daily, Nasdaq aims to facilitate the transition toward 24/7 programmable financial markets. The acquisition is a significant milestone for the RWA sector, as it validates the institutional push to represent traditional securities on-chain for increased settlement efficiency and transparency. This development follows a period of rapid growth in the tokenized stock market, which has expanded from approximately $381 million to nearly $2.5 billion in distributed value over the last year. Nasdaq intends to use this infrastructure to enable a hybrid trading environment where tokenized assets can coexist with traditional stocks. Ultimately, this acquisition signals a major shift toward continuous, always-on global markets that operate independently of traditional exchange hours.
Making The Case for Tokenized Collateral
A global report from Nasdaq and the ValueExchange highlights the critical inefficiencies in current collateral operations, where 70% of firms face daily settlement matching and delivery issues. To mitigate these failures, firms currently maintain approximately 7% excess collateral as a buffer, resulting in 25% of total collateral remaining idle and unremunerated. The research, which surveyed 203 market participants, reveals that 52% of firms expect to manage live tokenized collateral by the end of 2026. By transitioning to tokenized assets, Tier 1 firms could unlock an estimated $346 million in additional annual interest earnings by mobilizing idle capital. Furthermore, tokenization is projected to eliminate one in eight failed trades, significantly reducing operational friction. Over 60% of North American and European respondents anticipate that tokenized money market funds will become eligible collateral within the next two years. This shift underscores the growing institutional focus on leveraging blockchain technology to optimize capital efficiency and modernize post-trade infrastructure.
Nasdaq Seeks Protocol Engineer To Build On-chain Stock Token Standard
Nasdaq is actively advancing its Token Design Standard initiative by hiring a principal protocol engineer to architect the framework for on-chain equity representation. This role focuses on developing infrastructure for token issuance, compliance integration, and corporate action processing within a regulated environment. By establishing a unified technical standard, Nasdaq aims to resolve the fragmentation currently hindering the adoption of tokenized stocks across various blockchain ecosystems. The initiative signals a strategic shift toward treating blockchain as a core component of long-term market infrastructure rather than an experimental project. For institutional participants, this development promises potential benefits such as 24/7 trading, accelerated settlement cycles, and enhanced collateral management capabilities. The move is significant because it brings institutional credibility and regulatory rigor to a space previously dominated by smaller, crypto-native entities. As Nasdaq evaluates different blockchain networks for this standard, its influence could set the industry benchmark for how traditional equities are digitized and traded globally.
Nasdaq to acquire LeveL Markets in push toward ‘always
Nasdaq has entered into an agreement to acquire LeveL Markets, the third-largest alternative trading system in the United States, to accelerate its development of tokenized and always-on market infrastructure. This acquisition integrates LeveL Markets into Nasdaq’s Digital Liquidity Networks unit, which focuses on combining traditional liquidity platforms with blockchain-based settlement and tokenization capabilities. LeveL Markets currently processes hundreds of millions of shares daily for over 2,500 institutional clients and has seen a 56% increase in average daily trading volume in 2025. The move aligns with Nasdaq’s broader strategy to enable the trading of tokenized securities alongside traditional equities, a proposal currently under SEC review involving the Depository Trust Company. By securing this execution network, Nasdaq aims to support the industry-wide shift toward 24/7 trading cycles and programmable assets. This acquisition highlights the growing institutional commitment to bridging traditional equity markets with distributed ledger technology. As other major exchanges like the NYSE and Cboe pursue similar 24/7 initiatives, Nasdaq’s move underscores the competitive race to define the future of digital asset settlement.
ETF Tokenization: Building the Next Layer of Market Infrastructure
TD Securities outlines the evolving landscape of ETF tokenization, categorizing the market into tokenized exposure, issuer-led shares, and fully on-chain infrastructure. Rather than replacing existing ETF structures, current developments from institutions like Nasdaq and the DTCC position tokenization as a back-end enhancement to modernize post-trade workflows. The DTCC is actively utilizing digital twins for collateral, securities lending, and settlement, while U.S. ETF issuers are experimenting with permissioned blockchains to record ownership. This shift is significant because it allows traditional ETFs to integrate with digital financial systems, potentially expanding distribution to wallet-native investors. While third-party wrappers offer immediate global access, issuer-led models are viewed as more structurally sound for preserving regulatory oversight and shareholder protections. Ultimately, the integration of blockchain rails into ETF infrastructure promises to improve efficiency in collateral management and settlement. This transition marks a strategic move toward using distributed ledger technology to optimize existing financial plumbing rather than creating entirely new asset classes.
Equiniti CEO Dan Kramer makes the case for tokenized securities at Nasdaq
Equiniti CEO Dan Kramer is advocating for an integrated tokenization model that ensures blockchain-based securities maintain full legal shareholder rights, including voting and dividends. This approach seeks to bridge the gap between traditional financial infrastructure and digital assets by positioning transfer agents as the essential system of record. The strategy gains significant momentum following Nasdaq's SEC approval for token-settled equity trades, which validates the shift toward blockchain-based settlement. Bullish has agreed to acquire Equiniti for $4.2 billion in a deal expected to close in January 2027, combining digital exchange capabilities with established shareholder management services. Kramer emphasizes that issuer-sanctioned tokens are critical to avoid synthetic instruments that lack legal weight. By operating alongside existing systems rather than replacing them, this model aims to compress clearing cycles and reduce counterparty risk. This development marks a pivotal step in institutionalizing tokenized equity within regulated frameworks.
Is Nasdaq's Partnership with Kraken a Game-Changer for Tokenized Stocks - Kavout
Nasdaq, Inc. has announced a strategic partnership with Kraken to develop and distribute tokenized equities, with a planned launch in the first half of 2027. This initiative leverages Kraken’s xStocks framework to provide international investors with one-to-one tokenized versions of public company shares, ensuring full legal and regulatory equivalence to traditional holdings. The collaboration aims to modernize financial processes such as proxy voting and shareholder engagement by embedding programmable features directly into the assets. By utilizing Kraken’s existing infrastructure, which has already processed over $20 billion in cumulative trading volume since June 2025, the partnership seeks to bridge the gap between traditional capital markets and decentralized finance. This move builds upon Nasdaq’s previous SEC proposals to integrate tokenized assets with Depository Trust infrastructure. The project is designed to operate within regulated frameworks, utilizing Alpaca for brokerage and custody services while maintaining strict KYC and AML compliance. This institutional endorsement is significant as the global RWA market is projected to reach $9.43 trillion by 2030, driven by increased demand for fractional ownership and enhanced market efficiency.
SEC Set To Release Tokenized Stock Framework This Week, Bloomberg Reports
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is reportedly preparing to release an innovation exemption framework designed to facilitate the testing of tokenized securities by traditional financial institutions. This regulatory shift aims to allow firms to experiment with blockchain-based assets without undergoing the full, traditional registration process. The move follows recent SEC approvals for Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange to support tokenized share trading and on-chain settlement. By providing a unified regulatory pathway, the SEC intends to move beyond the previous case-by-case approval model that has characterized its recent engagement with the sector. Tokenized securities offer significant operational advantages over traditional equities, including 24/7 trading availability, reduced intermediary costs, and accelerated settlement timelines. Industry analysts project the tokenized asset market could reach between $2 trillion and $10 trillion by 2030, driven by increased institutional adoption. This development represents a critical milestone for the RWA market, as it lowers the barrier to entry for major financial players looking to integrate blockchain technology into their existing infrastructure.