Tokenized stocks have often been trading for hours before the U.S. cash equity market opens. Over the past year, that segment has moved from a niche experiment toward the center of the market, growing to billions of dollars in size and beginning to compete more directly with traditional exchanges.
Nasdaq is now pushing on both fronts. It is advancing plans tied to onchain equities while also preparing to extend the trading day. Starting Dec. 6, 2026, U.S. stocks are scheduled to move to a five-day, 23-hour trading structure. As listed equities edge closer to an almost around-the-clock model, the next stage of competition for tokenized stocks is shifting away from simple time advantage and toward compliance, liquidity depth and settlement infrastructure.
Nasdaq plans to launch 23-hour trading in December 2026
A recent 8-K filing submitted by Nasdaq to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission shows the exchange plans to introduce a near-continuous 23-hour trading system, with a targeted launch on Dec. 6, 2026. That would extend the current roughly 16-hour trading window to 23 hours a day, five days a week, leaving one hour for system maintenance.
The SEC approved the related proposal on April 10 this year. Even so, implementation still depends on technology upgrades at the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, or DTCC, and the Securities Information Processor, or SIP.
According to Chuck Mack, senior vice president of Nasdaq North American Markets, the new schedule would split trading into a daytime and an overnight session. The daytime session would run from 4:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time, followed by a one-hour pause for maintenance and trading-day transition work. The overnight session would then run from 9:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. the next day.
Mack previously said, 「What we’re doing is not just extending trading hours, but expanding investor access to the world’s most dynamic and liquid market.」
A bid for global order flow and a response to onchain competition
On the surface, the change is about longer market hours. In practice, it is also Nasdaq’s answer to changes in the global capital market structure.
As U.S. equities take up a larger share of global portfolios, especially technology and AI-related assets, a longer trading window would let investors in more time zones trade during locally convenient hours. That could broaden participation, support liquidity and help Nasdaq compete for more order flow and price discovery.
Asia stands out in that effort. The added overnight session would overlap with daytime hours across major Asian markets, making U.S. equities easier to trade for investors in the region and giving Nasdaq a chance to attract more cross-border allocation capital and trading activity from Asia Pacific.
Mack has also said that mobile-first platforms and tighter links across global markets are pushing capital markets to offer greater accessibility. Since 2019, foreign investors’ holdings of U.S. stocks have grown 97%, reaching $17 trillion as of mid-2024. For investors spread across multiple time zones, a longer window means they no longer need to align so closely with New York trading hours.
Nasdaq is not only dealing with pressure from other traditional exchanges. It is also facing the 24/7 trading model of the crypto market. Traditional U.S. equities trade for about 16 hours a day and close completely on weekends, leaving investors unable to adjust related positions after the close. As tokenized stocks gain traction, crypto-native features such as 24/7 access, global reach and faster settlement are turning digital-asset venues into a more meaningful battleground for equity trading.
The PANews report says platforms including Hyperliquid and Binance have already drawn users toward onchain venues, especially younger investors. From that angle, Nasdaq’s move also closes part of the timing gap that has allowed capital and users to drift toward tokenized stock markets.
The schedule change also serves Nasdaq’s tokenization plans
The report points to another layer behind the decision. It says the 23-hour structure also lays groundwork for Nasdaq’s own tokenized equity strategy.
According to the article, the SEC approved a Nasdaq pilot for tokenized stock trading in March 2026, allowing Russell 1000 constituents and major index ETFs to trade and settle in tokenized form. If broader stock tokenization and onchain settlement are pushed forward later, a 23-hour trading framework would give Nasdaq a way to test clearing, market-making, data systems and risk controls during overnight hours before moving to more continuous tokenized trading.
Tokenized stocks have expanded to 14.9% of the RWA market
Within the real-world asset, or RWA, market, tokenized stocks have become one of the few segments still posting rapid growth. Data from The Block cited in the report shows the category’s share of the RWA market has climbed to 14.9%, up from 5.1% at the start of the year, an increase of more than 2.9 times.
RWA.xyz data in the article shows that over the past 30 days:
- the number of holders rose 90.33% to 1.35 million;
- monthly transfer volume jumped 191.1% to $23.81 billion;
- active addresses increased 34.62% to more than 631,000;
- distribution value rose by more than 3.8% to $2.34 billion.
In market share terms, Ondo Finance, Binance (bStock) and xStocks rank as the top three players, together accounting for about 77% of the market. Ondo leads with $870 million, while xStocks and bStock each exceed $550 million and $480 million, respectively.
Proposed exemptions could lower barriers for onchain equities
The report also says the SEC is considering an innovation exemption for tokenized stocks. That framework would allow tokenized versions of shares such as Apple, Tesla and Nvidia to trade onchain around the clock, while also supporting fractional trading and near-instant settlement.
If that policy is adopted, the barrier for traditional stocks entering onchain markets would fall again, opening more room for tokenized equities to expand.
Competition is moving beyond trading hours
As real U.S. stocks in traditional markets move closer to all-day trading, competition between listed equities and tokenized stock products is entering a more direct phase.
In the short term, Nasdaq’s added overnight session could give tokenized stocks a more stable price anchor and a better hedging window. After traditional markets close, market makers in tokenized equities have lacked a continuous spot reference, which has often meant higher hedging costs, wider spreads and sharper price swings. That can also affect the quality of oracle feeds used by DeFi applications.
With overnight trading in place, some of that pressure may ease. A longer traditional trading window means onchain market makers can handle price discovery and risk hedging in conditions closer to the live stock market, lowering the chance of extreme price dislocations, supporting liquidity and providing more continuous pricing for DeFi use cases such as lending and derivatives.
Over a longer horizon, though, if traditional exchanges bring listed stocks close to all-day trading, tokenized equities will lose part of their original timing advantage. The focus of competition then shifts to who can offer more complete ownership rights, stronger compliance capabilities, more efficient settlement and deeper onchain composability.
For products that only provide synthetic exposure or simple price tracking, the report says room for differentiation may narrow as traditional trading hours expand. By contrast, tokenization models with longer-term staying power would be those that can deliver fuller shareholder rights, including voting and dividend rights, within a compliant framework, while also offering efficient settlement and deeper integration with DeFi protocols.
PANews concludes that this competition is likely to push deeper convergence between TradFi and crypto, while driving global asset trading toward higher efficiency, greater transparency and stronger composability.