Nasdaq is in search of regulatory approval to introduce tokenized variations of shares and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) onto its current buying and selling platform.
On Sept. 8, Tal Cohen, Nasdaq’s president, outlined the imaginative and prescient in a LinkedIn assertion, explaining that the plan is designed to seize the effectivity positive aspects of tokenization whereas preserving investor rights and market safeguards constructed over a long time.
This initiative displays a wider shift throughout conventional finance the place asset managers equivalent to BlackRock and Constancy are experimenting with tokenized choices.
Resulting from this rising adoption, Galaxy Analysis has estimated that tokenized equities may symbolize a $190 trillion market inside 20 years.
Why Nasdaq needs to commerce tokenized shares
Nasdaq, one of many largest conventional inventory exchanges with a each day buying and selling quantity of greater than $400 billion, careworn that US equities already rank because the world’s most liquid and clear markets, supported by rigorous oversight and superior know-how.
Cohen defined that the proposal would prolong these strengths into the digital period reasonably than change them.
Based on him:


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“The strategy will guarantee tokenized securities commerce as common securities, safeguarding each traders’ rights and the systemic stability of our markets by way of examined, resilient infrastructure. It seeks to seize the advantages of the know-how whereas guaranteeing it matures in a means that finest serves traders, issuers, and different stakeholders throughout world capital markets.”
He identified that the Nasdaq’s submitting highlighted how tokenization may streamline long-standing market processes. Based on him, the know-how may introduce sooner settlement cycles, decrease transaction friction, and programmable company actions into the system.
Nonetheless, Cohen cautioned that such modifications should not come on the expense of resilience or safety.
He highlighted decentralized finance as a lesson in each potential and threat of integrating blockchain know-how into the house.
Based on him, DeFi platforms have demonstrated new methods of dealing with buying and selling and clearing, however have additionally uncovered vulnerabilities when progress outpaces governance.
Contemplating this, Cohen careworn that investor safety and operational stability should stay on the core as new applied sciences are launched.
Consequently, the change mentioned it is able to collaborate with infrastructure suppliers to discover purposes equivalent to modernized proxy voting and automatic post-trade companies.