PALM BEACH, Fla. — Facing pressure from the growing momentum behind blockchain-based finance, New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) President Lynn Martin said she feels a “responsibility” to get involved in tokenization.
“We feel a responsibility to be part of the tokenization conversation,” Martin said Wednesday at the World Freedom Forum in Palm Beach. She said the exchange has developed its tokenization technology and is working with regulators to understand how it can be used within existing financial frameworks.
Tokenization is the conversion of real-world assets such as stocks or bonds into blockchain-based tokens, with the potential for faster settlement, round-the-clock trading, and more programmable financial products.
“We learned from the challenges,” Martin said, citing past pressure points in traditional markets related to liquidity and stability. “We are applying those lessons.”
While the crypto ecosystem has long operated on a 24/7 basis, the NYSE is preparing to launch a blockchain-powered platform later this year that, if approved by regulators, will enable round-the-clock trading of tokenized stocks and ETFs, deviating from its traditional 6.5-hour, five-day-a-week trading window.
As of press time, the exchange has not yet provided a launch date or detailed plans.
“As regulators, we must seize this moment,” Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Michael Selig said on the same panel.
Although previous administrations “blocked” the development of new tools and products, Selig said, “I want this to be very clear, we stand ready to develop with incumbents, new entrants, old technologies, new technologies.”