Nasdaq is hyping the "RWA narrative" like crazy! Want to integrate cryptocurrency into Wall Street's core infrastructure.

Some of the oldest operators of securities exchanges on Wall Street are vying to integrate cryptocurrency infrastructure into the traditional financial system. These traditional exchanges are betting that these two markets are moving towards a round-the-clock trading ecosystem. Nasdaq Inc. is escalating this bet by partnering with digital asset technology company Talos to integrate cryptocurrency trading and risk management tools into the same platform used by large commercial banks and brokerages on Wall Street to manage collateral for stocks and bonds, as well as monitor trends. Nasdaq's move signifies that traditional assets are getting closer to being "traded in token form", as the RWA wave is indeed beginning to extend from government bonds, money market funds, private credit, towards more complex asset classes such as stocks. However, this is under the premise of walking a path that is regulated, interchangeable, and compatible with existing market structures. Combined with Nasdaq's recent announcement of accelerating "stock tokenization design", this highlights the capital market "gatekeeper's" commitment to embedding cryptocurrency/tokenized assets into the underlying architecture of mainstream capital markets. The two companies announced on Monday Eastern Time that through this partnership, Talos' large clients - ranging from hedge funds to large retail brokerages - will have access to Nasdaq's Calypso platform; traditional financial services companies use this platform to manage risk, margin, and collateral requirements. Nasdaq is deepening its collaboration with Talos to integrate cryptocurrency trading and essential risk management tools into traditional financial firms for managing risk, margin, and collateral requirements on similar platforms. This is part of the broader initiative by the US capital market "gatekeepers" to embed cryptocurrency infrastructure into the core underlying structure of the financial system. On the other hand, Nasdaq's competitor, the New York Stock Exchange, is building its own blockchain-based trading platform to facilitate 24/7 trading of tokenized stocks and ETF assets. "We see cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and a wider range of RWAs being adopted comprehensively, and we are progressively moving to ensure that we can fully provide and integrate relevant cryptographic tools and risk management," said Roland Chai, President of Nasdaq Europe Market Services and Head of Digital Assets, in an interview. Traditional securities trading markets, such as those trading stocks from Monday to Friday, are beginning to converge with the around-the-clock cryptocurrency markets. Exchange operators are looking for ways to operate synergistically, utilizing the infrastructure of both new and old technologies to bring different asset classes closer together. Anton Katz, CEO and co-founder of Talos, said, "We help institutions extend their existing trading, risk, collateral, and compliance workflows into the digital asset trading domain, rather than treating cryptocurrency as a separate financial market island." He added that the collaboration with Nasdaq is "concrete evidence that these two worlds are truly beginning to merge." Accelerating the trend towards 24-hour tokenization Traditional securities exchanges like Nasdaq have been looking for ways to extend trading hours. The trend towards tokenized trading, which involves creating digital representations of real-world assets (RWA) on blockchains, has been hailed as a solution for Wall Street to address the allocation of round-the-clock trading and financial asset collateral issues, bringing them closer to the operational methods of cryptocurrency markets. Supporters claim that tokenization can be used to improve liquidity, reduce costs, and enhance trading efficiency for various asset classes, although its actual adoption is still not widespread. Earlier this month, Nasdaq announced a groundbreaking initiative to develop a tokenization framework that would give listed companies more control over their tokenized stocks. It is collaborating with the parent company of the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken to create a channel that allows tokenized stocks to circulate between regulated public securities trading markets and on-chain financial markets. The New York Stock Exchange is also building a platform that utilizes blockchain technology to enable 24/7 trading of tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds. In September last year, an application filed by Nasdaq with the US Securities and Exchange Commission seeking approval revealed plans to revise certain rules to allow stocks to be tokenized and traded in regulated venues like itself. This application was approved during the tenure of SEC Chairman Paul Atkins in January; Atkins has been a strong supporter of tokenization and reforms towards financial market liberalization. As a major provider of professional institutional digital asset infrastructure technology, Talos announced an additional $45 million funding round in January, bringing its total funding to $150 million and a valuation of $1.5 billion. Its core investors include Robinhood Markets, The Bank of New York Mellon, and Fidelity Investments. The narrative around RWAs is heating up! Nasdaq heralds the tokenization of US stocks Nasdaq's recent initiatives in advancing encrypted trading technology essentially aim to push the concept of "trading stocks in token form" into regulated market infrastructure. It is not creating a "chain replacement" detached from the securities law system, but rather promoting stocks to be traded in tokenized form in the Nasdaq market and settled as tokens through DTCC. Importantly, Nasdaq's design emphasizes that tokenized stocks should have the same legal rights, the same CUSIP (Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures) number, the same order book, and the equivalent shareholder rights as traditional stocks, rather than creating a parallel "shadow stock market." This also signifies that the new wave of RWA is indeed extending from simpler revenue-generating asset classes like government bonds, money market funds, and private credit to more complex asset categories like stocks. However, it is important to note that tokenizing stocks and government bonds are different in terms of difficulty level. Tokenizing government bonds primarily addresses issues of holdings and settlement efficiency, while tokenizing stocks involves a whole set of corporate law and securities market infrastructure issues related to voting rights, dividends, stock splits, corporate actions, shareholder register, and governance rights. Nasdaq's emphasis on putting issuers at the center is essentially addressing this challenge; the SEC's staff statement in January clearly distinguishes tokenized securities into issuer-led and third-party-led types, indicating that regulation has begun to address this infrastructure issue positively. From a foundational trading theory perspective, the true value of stock tokenization lies not in turning a stock into a "coin," but in redefining the trading hours, settlement speed, asset programmability, and global distribution capability of the stock market. Nasdaq and Payward, the parent company of Kraken, are designing a gateway that allows tokenized stocks to flow between regulated markets and on-chain markets; the NYSE has also announced the development of a platform using blockchain technology to enable 24/7 trading of tokenized stocks and ETFs. In essence, traditional securities exchanges no longer view tokenization as an "experiment in the crypto industry" but as the "new channel" for the next generation of stock markets. This reflects a clear market direction: longer trading hours, lower settlement frictions, fewer intermediary levels, and stronger global liquidity connectivity. The latest partnership with Talos on March 23 is not about "redesigning stocks" but about Nasdaq's efforts to "manage cryptocurrency assets in the back-end systems of institutions the same way they do with stocks and bonds." Talos' clients will have access to Nasdaq's Calypso platform, using the same system to manage digital asset risk, margin, and collateral; Nasdaq executives also explicitly stated that they see digital assets being adopted comprehensively, aiming to provide tools and risk management and gradually converge traditional markets with 24/7 cryptocurrency markets. If Nasdaq's previously planned groundbreaking "stock tokenization design" was a system design for asset and rights tokenization, this latest initiative is more about integrating post-trade and risk control infrastructure, although they are not the same thing, they complement each other, forming the complete landscape of Nasdaq's true cryptographic/RWA tokenization trading model. According to predictions from Ripple and the Boston Consulting Group, it is expected that the size of tokenized real-world assets (centered on RWAs) will exceed $18 trillion by 2033, with a projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of up to 53% since 2025. The so-called "tokenization trend" focusing on RWA (Real-World Assets, assets brought onto the blockchain) - including government bonds, loans, mutual fund shares, real estate, accounts receivable, carbon credits, and other measurable value traditional financial/physical assets on the blockchain - refers to mapping any quantifiable value originally existing in traditional financial systems or the real economy into digitized assets tokens that are programmable and transferable on the blockchain. Most research describes the concept of RWAs as "representing ownership of tangible or off-chain assets through tokens issued by smart contracts on the blockchain." The World Economic Forum points out that tokenization allows these assets to have unified shared ledgers, real-time settlement, and programmable attributes, thereby significantly reducing delivery risk and significantly increasing asset trading efficiency. For traditional banking giants, after the stablecoin wave, the broad RWA tokenization can significantly expand revenue sources for financial business and further explore blockchain efficiency dividends within a compliance framework. RWA is likely to be one of the most important themes for the transformation of traditional financial infrastructure into the blockchain in the coming years. However, whether or not it can develop into a "super wave" similar to artificial intelligence technology depends on three factors: regulatory acceptance, issuer participation, and compatibility with old systems. The trend is indeed very strong at the moment: according to RWA.xyz statistics, the value of distributed assets on-chain has reached about $26.5 billion; the US's three major bank regulatory agencies have just explicitly stated that banks holding or trading tokenized securities do not need additional capital penalties, emphasizing regulatory "neutrality."