The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is bullish on building out a new venue for 24/7, instantly-settled trading of stocks and ETFs in tokenized form, reports Bloomberg. The move is intended to modernize stock trading, and evolves from the current arguably outdated model of trading during roughly half the day, on weekdays and non-holidays only.
According to Michael Blaugrund of Intercontinental Exchange Inc (ICE), who owns the NYSE, the development illustrates the evolution "from trading floor, to electronic order-book, to blockchain." The modernized platform, set to arrive "later this year," reportedly leverages NYSE's Pillar buyer-seller matching engine and integrates it with a blockchain-based system.
Crucially, the architecture links with various networks, and the tokenized stocks match those of a conventional share, maintaining owners' rights to dividends and corporate governance. As expected, the shares are backed by U.S. dollars in stablecoin form.
Bloomberg states that ICE is also in discussions with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for the go-ahead for the new platform, though the seemingly advanced stage of development could indicate that regulatory approval is predicted.
Having 24/7 share trading begets the ability to manage cash flow outside regular banking hours, and to that end, ICE is reportedly collaborating with Citigroup and the Bank of New York for implementing support for tokenized deposits. Having instant settlement puts the kibosh on the one-day delay of existing equity markets, too.
The conventional markets' limitation on trading hours and the implied restrictions have long been criticized by blockchain technology enthusiasts, and the argument could be made that the time restrictions never made sense once trading stopped being physical.
The digital revolution in finance seems to be going at a good clip now, though. NYSE's move comes in hot on the heels of Nasdaq, which last September asked the SEC for permission to trade tokenized versions of socks. The London Stock Exchange Group launched its digital private fund management platform that same month, and in December, J.P. Morgan launched a tokenized money market fund based on the Ethereum blockchain.
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