Wall Street just put stocks on a blockchain
On March 18, the SEC approved Nasdaq to trade and settle U.S. equities as blockchain tokens.
Hey, it’s Marc,
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.
Stepping back: Nasdaq originally filed SR-NASDAQ-2025-072 in September 2025, then replaced it entirely with Amendment No. 2 on January 30, 2026.
Zooming in: The groundwork was laid on December 11, 2025, when the SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets issued a no-action letter to DTC permitting a three-year voluntary tokenization pilot for Russell 1000 securities, major index ETFs, and U.S. Treasuries. That letter gave DTC the regulatory cover to build. Nasdaq’s approval gives it the first venue to go live. [CEO notes]
Meanwhile, Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE’s parent) dropped $200M into OKX, 120M users, 14.3% global derivatives market share, targeting H2 2026 for tokenized NYSE equity access. [CEO notes]
Nasdaq signed a parallel deal with Kraken (Payward), targeting H1 2027 via Kraken’s xStocks framework, which has already cleared $25B in transaction volume with 85,000+ holders. [CEO notes]
By the data: The global equity market is valued at approximately $126T. NASDAQ comprised 29.5% of U.S. equity options (equity derivatives) in Q4 2025 and 49.1% of industry on-exchange volume in cash equities.
