The New York Stock Exchange has signed a preliminary deal with Blockchain.com that could bring tokenized U.S. stocks to 44 million crypto accounts. As reported by The Block, the two companies announced a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on Wednesday - a non-binding agreement that gives Blockchain.com users access to NYSE's digital alternative trading system (ATS). Trading would start only after regulators approve it, according to the announcement. The deal also includes a data exchange component, with ICE Data Services planning to sell Blockchain.com's crypto market data to its clients in return for Blockchain.com showing live NYSE and ICE stock prices inside its app. NYSE Group President Lynn Martin called Blockchain.com's international reach across more than 70 jurisdictions a 'natural complement' to the platform.
The New York Stock Exchange has spent approximately one year testing Avalanche technology as part of its infrastructure development for tokenized securities, according to Ava Labs President Charley Cooper. As reported by The Block, Cooper revealed during the Avalanche Summit on September 16-17 that ICE has been conducting a comprehensive evaluation of Avalanche's technology for a potential on-chain Alternative Trading System (ATS). The focus centers on enabling 24/7 tokenized stock trading with instant settlement - a significant upgrade from traditional markets that operate roughly six and a half hours per day, five days a week. Cooper described the relationship as 'close working relationship' with ICE, emphasizing that 'a year of testing is meaningful, but it's not a contract signing' during the evaluation process.
NYSE's proposed tokenized securities venue combines the exchange's Pillar matching engine with blockchain-based post-trade infrastructure. Subject to regulatory approvals, the platform is expected to support tokenized versions of existing securities alongside assets issued natively onchain. Planned features include continuous trading, immediate settlement, fractional shares, dollar-denominated orders and stablecoin-based funding. Tokenized shareholders would retain conventional rights including dividends and governance rights attached to the underlying securities. The proposed system is intended to support multiple blockchains for settlement and custody, according to the latest reports. An on-chain ATS would collapse the settlement timeline from T+1 to essentially T+0, allowing investors in Tokyo to trade tokenized US equities at 2 AM New York time without waiting for American markets to open.
The regulatory landscape for tokenized equities changed significantly after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission granted a five-year tokenized stock exemption that requires tokens to carry the same rights as ordinary shares and bars synthetic copies. According to The Block, the five-year exemption applies to qualifying tokenized National Market System stocks under specific conditions covering shareholder rights, smart contracts, trading limits and coordinated market halts. Cooper expects some trading venues to begin offering 24-hour weekday access within the next year, though he noted that major exchanges may not move on the same timetable. The deal lands a week after the SEC granted the five-year exemption, with neither company providing a launch date as the next step requires regulatory approval for the NYSE's digital venue.
The potential NYSE partnership has put AVAX under a different kind of spotlight as one of the most ambitious projects in traditional finance. According to PANews, AVAX's move back above the previously highlighted $7.60 level invalidated the earlier bearish setup. Over the next several days, the main resistance area sits between the 200-day SMA near $7.98 and horizontal resistance around $8.18. If buyers manage to clear that zone, momentum could accelerate toward $9.71. However, a drop and sustained move below $7.10 would invalidate the bullish setup, with the risk of correction toward $6.70 increasing significantly. For now, treating gains of several hundred percent as a base-case outcome would be premature, as no network selection, formal partnership or NYSE deployment on Avalanche has been confirmed. The scale of such a use case could materially change how the market values AVAX and potentially support a much larger repricing if NYSE ultimately selects Avalanche as one of the core networks for its on-chain infrastructure.
