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For most of its history, buying a stock meant trusting a long chain of banks, brokers, and clearinghouses to sort out who owns what, a process that still takes two full days to complete. On March 18, the SEC approved Nasdaq to trade and settle U.S. equities as blockchain tokens, baked directly into the National Market System. [FILING]

The Signal: The $126 trillion global equity market has started moving on-chain. The last time American equity markets underwent a structural shift of this magnitude was decimalization in 2001.

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What happened

The SEC approved SR-NASDAQ-2025-072 (rule change proposal by the Nasdaq to enable the trading of securities in tokenized form) on March 18, allowing Nasdaq to trade and settle eligible U.S. securities as blockchain tokens via the DTC’s Digital Omnibus Account.

Initial scope: Russell 1000 stocks, S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 ETFs.

Tokens are minted one-to-one against real shares held at Cede & Co., tracked via the DTC’s LedgerScan system with the same CUSIP (uniquely identify North American financial securities (stocks, bonds, municipal bonds) to facilitate accurate trading, clearing, and settlement), voting rights, dividends and order book without price fragmentation. First trades could occur by Q3 2026.