When Nasdaq Starts 'Putting Stocks on the Chain', What Are We Really Welcoming?
Nasdaq is advancing a proposal to move U.S. stock settlement onto the blockchain, which could fundamentally reshape the infrastructure of American capital markets. This shift aims to replace the current slow, manual, and multi-layered clearing system with real-time, automated on-chain settlement. While many discussions focus on surface-level changes like 24/7 trading, the core transformation is structural: moving from outdated T+2 (or even T+1) settlement to instantaneous, programmable, and transparent ledger-based clearing.
This isn’t about making stocks “more Web3” but modernizing a financial system that still relies on processes from the 1970s. The existing system—with its custodians, sub-custodians, and clearing intermediaries—creates operational friction, risk, and cost, as seen during events like the GameStop trading halts and the FTX collapse. On-chain settlement could reduce the need for traditional custodial roles, compress arbitrage opportunities built on settlement delays, and turn static securities into dynamic, composable financial instruments.
The move faces significant resistance from entrenched intermediaries who profit from the current structure, but the direction of change appears inevitable. As demonstrated by Hong Kong’s recent issuance of a green bond settled in one second (versus five days), tokenization of traditional assets is becoming an operational reality—not a conceptual experiment. When stocks migrate on-chain, other assets like bonds and derivatives may follow, leading to a quiet but profound shift in how global markets function. This isn’t just a change in technology; it’s a change in the nature of finance itself.
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