NASDAQ, the U.S. exchange where the tech sector’s biggest names list their stocks, is seeking to put stocks on the blockchain, asking the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday to bless its effort even as others in the securities world are sprinting toward the same tokenization goal.
If the SEC filing is approved, the exchange would let customers choose either the traditional route for trading equities or to do so on-chain with tokenized stocks — an option that would be treated with the same priority as the legacy method.
“The Exchange believes the markets can use tokenization while continuing to provide the benefits and protections of the national market system,” NASDAQ contended in its filing, suggesting that the tokenized assets should be traded “in regulated markets, namely national securities exchanges, alternative trading systems, and at [Financial Industry Regulatory Authority] regulated broker-dealers.”
The move by NASDAQ follows an effort by digital brokerage Robinhood to issue stock tokens for European customers in July, giving access to some 200 U.S. stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Bringing equities and other real-world assets onto blockchain rails has been among the most sizzling of the digital-asset world’s innovations, and the competition has been growing fierce for both traditional finance names and crypto natives to make moves.
Several crypto exchanges, such as Bybit, Kraken and Gemini, have been making the leap. But TradFi behemoth NASDAQ — home of the listings for Apple, Google parent Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft and other technology mainstays — is particularly significant.
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For its part, NASDAQ would treat this business just like regular stock trading, it said, and have the trading of tokens clear and settle through the Depository Trust Co.
“The mere fact that an order contains tokenized securities or indicates a preference to clear and settle securities in token form shall not affect the priority in which the Exchange executes that order,” according to NASDAQ’s proposed change with the SEC. The already-digital transactions of stock would — under this new system — be logged via digital ledger, which “presents novel capabilities by which to record evidence of securities ownership and transactions.”
Those buying the tokens would gain full rights to the associated shares of stock, including voting and liquidation rights.
NASDAQ’s new tokenized trading — also offering exchange-traded products, such as ETFs — would begin “once the requisite infrastructure and post-trade settlement services have been established by” DTC, which is working on them, the company said.
SEC Chairman Paul Atkins has made it clear that tokenization of assets is a major priority for the agency, and the regulator gathered a panel in its series of crypto roundtables earlier this year to explore it. A major component of Atkins’ new Project Crypto push at the agency is to clear a path for the world’s leading tokenized securities market.
“This movement of securities from off-chain to on-chain systems is akin to the transition of audio recordings from analog vinyl records to cassette tapes to digital software decades ago,” Atkins said in May 12 remarks at the agency. “The migration to on-chain securities has the potential to remodel aspects of the securities market by enabling entirely new methods of issuing, trading, owning, and using securities.”
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