The power of SpaceX's narrative is something that readers who have followed Musk's Starlink and Mars colonization stories can deeply appreciate. Many friends who previously had no interest in the U.S. stock market have privately messaged Crypto Salad, wanting to know how to enter the U.S. stock market. For us Chinese residents, direct entry is a process with barriers. Therefore, many have reignited their enthusiasm for 'U.S. stock tokenization.' Crypto Salad does not provide any investment advice or recommendations here. As always, we will break down the underlying logic of U.S. stock tokenization into digestible pieces. The rest is for you to judge.
In the previous article ('Global Listing, 24-Hour Stock Trading? Analyzing the NYSE's On-Chain "Open Strategy"'), we detailed the kind of U.S. stock tokenization platform the NYSE aims to create and deeply analyzed its underlying logic. If, over the past year, U.S. stock tokenization was still confined to Web3 exploration and experimentation, then Nasdaq and the NYSE's successive official launches of tokenized stock attempts in 2026 have彻底终结了这种圈内“自嗨” (thoroughly ended this kind of in-circle 'self-indulgence'). The Berlin Wall between U.S. stocks and crypto assets has, in fact, already crumbled. We have previously deconstructed the technical elements of the NYSE platform, including 7×24 hour trading, fractional share mechanisms, instant settlement based on stablecoins, and native digital security issuance, among other designs. This article will not repeat these details but will attempt to answer two deeper questions: Why did the NYSE choose to launch at this moment? Where is the future of U.S. stock tokenization?
一、“Why now?”
To understand 'why now,' one must first understand the real constraints of the securities market. The reason traditional markets have long adhered to fixed trading hours is not because the matching system cannot operate continuously, but because clearing, settlement, and margin management heavily rely on bank operating hours. Once the banking system closes, fund flows and risk control face a breakpoint, naturally limiting trading hours. The NYSE's proposal to cover the funding gap during non-operating hours through on-chain settlement and tokenized funding tools is essentially reshaping the market's temporal structure.
Backed by its parent company ICE, which is collaborating with Bank of New York Mellon and Citibank to promote tokenized deposit arrangements, the NYSE enables clearing members to allocate funds and fulfill margin obligations during bank non-operating hours. This is a crucial step. The real systemic risk of 24-hour trading lies not in matching but in whether margin and liquidity can operate continuously. When 'money' itself is tokenized, 7×24 hour trading becomes practically feasible.
So, why must the focus be on time? In the traditional financial context, weekends, holidays, and late nights are liquidity断层 (fault lines). Even with dark pool support, they cannot承载真正的价格发现 (bear true price discovery) due to time restrictions and dispersed participants. Various U.S. stock tokenization platforms also cannot truly achieve 7×24 hour operation.
But in 2026, this 'financial vacuum期' (period) is being violently filled by tokenized contract markets. In today's capital markets, risk appetite is revealed in real-time, by the 'minute.' For example, the cumulative trading volume for contracts related to 'U.S. military strikes on Iran' on the world's largest decentralized prediction market, Polymarket, recently surged past $529 million. While ordinary investors were still searching for 'Iran,' 'casualty numbers,' and official news releases, real money had already completed risk pricing through the odds of the prediction market. Simultaneously, BTC, as a 24-hour liquid risk asset, also mirrors the breath of geopolitics, changing almost every second.
This might be one reason the NYSE had to 'flip the table.' If the U.S. stock market continues to maintain its 9-to-5 clearing system, it will completely lose the 'first-mover pricing power' for global core assets.
However, if this is only understood as a post-trade upgrade, its significance is still underestimated. When funds begin to settle on-chain, the ecological positions of financial institutions will be redistributed. The traditional path involves banks沉淀资金 (pooling funds), earning interest spreads, brokers earning transaction fees, and issuers telling stories to attract capital. Funds flow sequentially between different entities, each with its own profit logic. When stablecoins become settlement and margin tools, and trading, clearing, and fund management can be completed on the same technological layer, the value chain originally分散在不同机构 (dispersed among different institutions) may be compressed into fewer nodes. On-chain platforms can not only earn transaction fees but may also participate in fund management and liquidity organization. Of course, this does not mean banks will disappear, but it does mean funds no longer必须沉淀在传统银行体系内部 (must be deposited within the traditional banking system). To put it more直观一点 (intuitively): In the past, you had to deposit money into a bank first, then transfer it to a brokerage account to complete a trade; the future path might become: wallet as account, settlement as completion. The shortening of the fund path is itself a structural冲击 (impact).
It is precisely for this reason that the NYSE did not choose to build a separate炉灶 (stove) outside the regulatory system but deliberately embedded tokenization into the existing market structure. The platform emphasizes non-discriminatory access but仅限于合格经纪交易商 (limited to qualified broker-dealers). Tokenization does not change the legal attributes of the security; holders still fully enjoy dividend and governance rights. The on-chain form of the asset does not alter its legal essence. This restraint is key: The NYSE is not building a 'wild token market' but is incorporating the on-chain form into the core, most stringent securities regulatory logic. Truly enduring innovation is never the most radical but the form that can best withstand the tests of compliance and infrastructure.
二、Where is the Future of U.S. Stock Tokenization?
Major Web3 exchanges have inherently sensitive and rapidly responsive genes. While mainstream media was still trying to analyze where SpaceX's value lies, platforms like Meton MSX had already opened a Pre-IPO market for SpaceX. Other exchanges have also taken corresponding actions. Robinhood even launched Robinhood Ventures, allowing everyone to participate in investing in private equity funds focused on future tech non-listed companies. According to Kraken's reports, the tokenized stock perpetual contracts (xStocks) it launched last year amassed a trading volume of $25 billion in less than a year.
But in reality, exchanges might not be the only future流量入口 (traffic入口, entry points). As Binance, Bitget, OKX, and various Web3 wallets begin to support the buying and selling of on-chain assets, wallets themselves have become the new generation of traffic入口 (entry points). Wallets are no longer just storage tools but interfaces that aggregate trading, DeFi, staking, and investment. When assets can flow directly on-chain, the traditional path of 'depositing into an exchange before trading' is also being shortened. Who does DeFi actually make money from? It earns from the spreads and market-making profits brought by fund流转效率 (circulation efficiency); it is a redistribution of traditional intermediary structures. When the NYSE launches its tokenization platform, it is also responding to this reality: if mainstream exchanges do not actively move into the on-chain form, on-chain liquidity will form its own循环 (cycle) on other platforms.
Deeper competition and cooperation are also occurring between stablecoins and sovereign digital currencies. Having researched RWA for over a year, we have always believed that the most successful RWA currently is stablecoins, while the explosively growing RWA is listed company stocks. At some future point,真正的现实资产 RWA (true real-world asset RWA) will become increasingly common. The U.S. has明确 (clearly stated) that it will not have the central bank directly issue stablecoins but will allow market participants; China has明确 (clearly stated) that only the state can issue the digital yuan. Whether stablecoins can generate interest and possess attributes similar to bank deposits is at the heart of a competition for monetary ecological niches. When stablecoin becomes a settlement tool, it is not just a payment medium but closer to a 'digitized form of fiat currency.' If the NYSE platform uses stablecoins as its settlement foundation, it inevitably participates in this broader institutional competition.
三、Conclusion
If 2025 was the year of application and试探 (probing) for U.S. stock tokenization, then 2026 might become the year of institutional分叉 (forking). As the post-trade system begins to loosen, as funds themselves become tokenized, and as wallets become new traffic入口 (entry points), the temporal and capital structures of the securities market are being quietly rewritten. This is not as simple as 'stocks on chain'; it is a层级迁移 (layer migration) of market infrastructure. In this process, whoever can simultaneously master the协同逻辑 (synergistic logic) of trading, settlement, and funds will be closer to the market form of the future.
