News, data and analysis on tokenized assets, market design and digital economic systems.
Operator of the Nasdaq Stock Market, which won SEC approval on 23 March 2026 to let members trade Russell 1000 constituents in tokenized form on the same order book, making the change a settlement option rather than a separate market.
Operator of the Nasdaq Stock Market, which opened on 8 February 1971 as the first electronic quotation system for over-the-counter securities, alongside Nordic exchanges, index businesses and trading technology used by markets in other jurisdictions; more than 4,000 companies are listed on its exchange. On 23 March 2026 the Securities and Exchange Commission approved its rule change allowing members to trade Russell 1000 constituents and major index exchange-traded funds in tokenized form, restricted to participants in the Depository Trust Company's tokenization pilot. The design deliberately keeps tokenisation out of trading: tokenized shares are fungible with ordinary shares, carry the same CUSIP and symbol and the same shareholder rights, and trade on the same order book with the same priority, with a flag selected at order entry and passed to DTC after the trade. If tokenization cannot be effected, the trade settles conventionally, which makes the change a settlement option rather than a separate market.
Developments in which Nasdaq, Inc. is a named party, newest first.
The Innovation Exemption lets a Tokenized Securities Venue trade tokenized listed shares on an automated market maker without registering as an exchange, until September 2031.
Nasdaq Ventures has agreed to invest $100m in Payward, and Payward will adopt Nasdaq's surveillance across its crypto, equities, tokenized equities, futures and options venues. Nasdaq Equity Tokens are expected in the second quarter of 2027.
Nasdaq, Boerse Stuttgart, Securitize, Axiology, Cashlink and twenty-two others wrote to the Council and the Parliament's economic committee asking for the ceiling on instruments admitted to DLT market infrastructure to be removed, or set at EUR…
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.
The Securities and Exchange Commission approved a Nasdaq rule change on 18 March 2026 allowing certain tokenized securities to trade on the exchange, alongside an interpretation of how the federal securities laws apply to tokenized instruments.
Release 34-106402 grants temporary conditional relief to Tokenized Securities Venues from the exchange definition and to certain liquidity providers from the dealer definition, until 17 September 2031. Smart contracts must sit on a public permissionless ledger, issuers can object to third-party tokenizations, and Tier 1 trading is capped at 75 symbols and 0.25 per cent of prior-month volume.
Nasdaq said it would invest $100m in Payward through Nasdaq Ventures, that Payward would adopt Nasdaq surveillance across its crypto, equities, tokenized equities, futures and options venues, and that Nasdaq Equity Tokens are expected in the second quarter of 2027. No valuation is stated in the release.
Nasdaq, Boerse Stuttgart, Securitize, Axiology, Cashlink and twenty-two other firms and associations wrote to the Council and the Parliament's economic committee asking for the cap on instruments admitted to DLT infrastructure to be removed, or set at EUR 1,500bn, and opposing a lower threshold for DLT venues than for designated depositories.
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.
The SEC approved a Nasdaq proposed rule change, as modified by Amendment No. 2, permitting securities to trade on the exchange in tokenized form through DTC's tokenization pilot, in Release 34-105047. Eligible participants may set a tokenization flag on orders in Russell 1000 constituents and large index ETFs; tokenized and conventional shares trade on the same order book with the same priority provided they remain fungible and share the same CUSIP and symbol.
The Securities and Exchange Commission approved rule changes allowing eight spot ether exchange-traded products to list on NYSE Arca, Nasdaq and Cboe BZX. The order relied on the Commission's own analysis of correlation between CME ether futures and Coinbase spot prices from October 2021 to March 2024, which it put at no less than 96.2% at hourly intervals, 85.7% at five-minute intervals and 67.1% at one-minute intervals.
What issued, what settled, what the supervisors changed, with the numbers behind it and a note on what the numbers do not show. One email, Thursday mornings.
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