SEC Approves Nasdaq Support for Tokenized Securities Trading

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Investor Advisory Committee has endorsed securities tokenization, seeking to replace traditional settlement models by recording and trading shares on blockchains. The shift could enable near-instant, round-the-clock trading and reduce intermediary costs, but also raises concerns about investor protection, market fairness and information transparency.

As of July 19, 2026, the committee had voted to support the policy and recommended mandatory reporting requirements, fair-trading safeguards and rules governing third parties that put shares on-chain. SEC Chair Paul Atkins confirmed that the agency was developing guidance for tokenized stocks. No formal release date, eligibility thresholds or related amounts have been announced.

The Depository Trust Company, or DTC, launched a tokenization pilot under an SEC no-action letter dated December 11, 2025, and Nasdaq became the first exchange to receive approval on March 18, 2026. The framework allows compliant securities to retain the same CUSIP numbers and shareholder rights while testing blockchain settlement within the existing regulatory system. It does not immediately authorize 24/7 trading.

The New York Stock Exchange filed SR-NYSE-2026-17 with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on April 9, 2026. The SEC published the filing on April 17 and opened it for public comment through May 13. The proposed rules would allow DTC-eligible securities in tokenized or conventional form to share an order book and receive equal priority, while retaining T+1 settlement. The filing involves no investment amount, and a 24/7 platform would require separate approval.

Global equity markets are worth about $126 trillion, while stocks, bonds and funds are largely spread across separate systems constrained by trading hours and settlement processes. Nasdaq and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent of the New York Stock Exchange, are advancing stock tokenization that would preserve shareholder rights and governance while recording ownership and settlement on a blockchain. Their goal is to create shared market infrastructure capable of operating around the clock.

A March 15, 2026, report said Nasdaq was working with Kraken parent Payward to issue tokenized stocks globally as early as the first half of 2027. ICE, meanwhile, made a strategic investment in OKX at a $25 billion valuation and plans to offer tokenized stocks and crypto futures to its 120 million users. Data from April 2 showed that the relevant market remained worth only about $900 million, far short of the $126 trillion global equity market.

Nasdaq is working to introduce tokenization into U.S. capital markets, allowing equity interests to trade in blockchain-based form. If traditional U.S. exchanges and offshore platforms handle the same assets simultaneously, the shift could alter centralized order matching and price discovery, with implications for liquidity, regulation and investor protection.

A recent TD Securities report warned that if tokenized shares trade on platforms such as Kraken, exchange prices could decouple from round-the-clock onchain quotes, creating a two-tier market. Fragmented liquidity could also produce price discrepancies in the same stock. Available information does not disclose the plan’s value, the report’s date or a formal launch schedule.

Europe's post-trade securities infrastructure has long been fragmented across national settlement systems with differing rules and processes, adding time and operating costs to cross-border transactions. Boerse Stuttgart's Seturion can connect to public and private distributed ledgers and settle transactions using central bank money or on-chain cash, making it important infrastructure for integrating tokenized asset markets.

Nasdaq and Boerse Stuttgart announced on March 9, 2026, that they would connect Nasdaq's European trading markets to Seturion, initially focusing on structured products to accelerate tokenized securities settlement. The companies did not disclose the value of the partnership, a formal launch date or settlement times. They plan to expand the service to more issuers, brokers and financial institutions.