News, data and analysis on tokenized assets, market design and digital economic systems.
The third largest alternative trading system in the United States by volume, and from 11 August 2026 the subject of a definitive agreement to be bought by Nasdaq and placed inside a new division that also holds its acquirer's tokenization business. Terms were not disclosed.
LeveL Markets is a broker-dealer that owns and operates LeveL ATS, an off-exchange equity execution venue in the United States. Nasdaq's release of 11 August 2026 describes it as processing hundreds of millions of shares daily across more than 7,000 symbols, reaching more than 2,500 buy-side and sell-side clients through more than 15 order and execution management system integrations, and serving more than 300 institutional buy-side firms following its merger with Luminex in 2022. Average daily volume grew 56 per cent year over year in 2025. Nasdaq first took a strategic minority investment in 2021. Its own description of itself is a securities marketplace and technology provider whose products include LeveL Connect, a buy-side connectivity gateway reaching Europe and Canada, a continuous crossing platform, volume-weighted average price trajectory orders and low-latency trading tools. Steve Miele is chief executive. Under the agreement the venue keeps its own management team, its structural separateness and its participant confidentiality, and remains a registered ATS subject to FINRA oversight, which is a different rulebook from the one Nasdaq's own exchange operates under.
Developments in which LeveL Markets, LLC is a named party, newest first.
Nasdaq agreed on 11 August to acquire LeveL Markets, the third largest alternative trading system in the United States, and to put it inside a new Digital Liquidity Networks organisation that also holds its tokenization business.
Nasdaq entered a definitive agreement on 11 August 2026 to acquire LeveL Markets, the third largest alternative trading system in the United States, and placed it in a new Digital Liquidity Networks organisation holding its tokenization capabilities. Terms were not disclosed and the venue remains a registered ATS under FINRA oversight.
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