NYSE Taps Avalanche to Settle Its Planned Tokenized Stock Platform

The New York Stock Exchange is turning to Avalanche to power the behind-the-scenes plumbing of its forthcoming tokenized securities platform, one of the clearest signs yet that Wall Street’s oldest institutions are moving core market infrastructure onto public blockchains.

Ava Labs, the company behind Avalanche, said Monday that the blockchain will serve as the “core ledger technology” for the clearing firm behind an NYSE-affiliated digital trading venue.

The platform, which the NYSE’s parent Intercontinental Exchange previously said it was developing, is designed to allow 24/7 trading, clearing and settlement of tokenized securities, subject to regulatory approval. Running on Avalanche, it aims to bring the clearing of tokenized equities onchain at institutional scale.

Tokenization, the practice of issuing traditional assets as blockchain-based tokens, has become one of Wall Street’s buzziest pursuits, but most efforts so far have centered on individual products rather than the market machinery itself.

The NYSE’s move is notable because it puts a blockchain underneath the clearing and settlement layer, the plumbing that finalizes trades, rather than just wrapping a single fund or stock in a token.

Dennis Lee, the NYSE’s head of digital issuance, said the exchange is “picking the right technology for each job,” and that while its planned platform will support equities listed across a range of blockchains, the ledger recording and settling trades needs to be fast, reliable and able to control who participates.

Emin Gün Sirer, Ava Labs’ CEO and founder, framed the deal as proof that blockchains can support not just products but the infrastructure they trade on, citing Avalanche’s “24/7 atomic settlement” and predictable costs.

The announcement adds to a frenetic race to put stocks and their underlying infrastructure onchain.

The NYSE separately tapped Blockchain.com to reach crypto investors with tokenized stocks and ETFs, while ICE and crypto exchange OKX are planning a 24/7 tokenized stock venue under an SEC exemption, and Morgan Stanley has moved to tokenize securities.

That OKX-ICE effort has hit friction, though: Every Magnificent Seven stock, including Apple and Meta, opted out of having its shares tokenized on the venue, with 67 companies in all joining them.