NYSE selects Avalanche for tokenized stock settlement

The New York Stock Exchange will use Avalanche to record and settle tokenized-stock trades, according to an announcement by NYSE and Ava Labs on Monday.

Regulatory approval remains a condition for launch, according to The Wall Street Journal. NYSE first announced the platform in January. Ava Labs said in September that the exchange had spent about a year testing Avalanche. Its final selection came Monday.

Dennis Lee, NYSE’s head of digital issuance, said: “At the NYSE, we’re looking at how blockchain technology can expand what we offer in equities, and we’re picking the right technology for each job.” Ava Labs said Avalanche’s blockchain will keep track of stock trades and help complete transactions on the planned platform.

What does this change for investors?

The planned platform would let investors buy and sell digital versions of stocks listed on different blockchains. Avalanche would record those trades and help ensure the transactions complete. The arrangement separates the chain where an equity sits from the shared ledger used to settle trading.

NYSE’s planned digital platform will support equities listed on a range of blockchains. Lee said the ledger that records and settles trades must be fast and reliable, let the exchange control participation, keep costs predictable, and have a large developer community. Avalanche met those requirements, he said.

For investors, the practical change remains prospective because the platform has yet to launch. Its intended benefit is faster stock trading outside regular market hours. Traditional U.S. markets open from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. EST on weekdays, and trades often take at least one business day to settle. NYSE designed the platform to operate around the clock.

A yearlong infrastructure test

The selection followed an extended evaluation. Ava Labs revealed in September that NYSE had spent about a year testing Avalanche. The exchange had outlined the platform in January. Monday’s announcement settled the infrastructure choice.

John Nahas, chief business officer at Ava Labs, told Cointelegraph: “Our first conversations with the NYSE team began nearly a year ago, and it’s remarkable how quickly we’ve progressed toward supporting this infrastructure. It’s an important step toward blockchain becoming foundational financial infrastructure.”

Institutional competition moves closer

Nasdaq is pursuing a similar route. In September, it announced a $100 million investment plan for Kraken’s parent company, Payward, to launch tokenized stocks. The project’s expected launch is the second quarter of 2027.

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, or DTCC, which helps settle U.S. securities trades, launched a service in October that lets financial firms convert traditional securities into digital tokens. CEO Frank La Salla said the service marked years of work to bring tokenized securities into a regulated framework supported by trusted market infrastructure.

He said extending DTC’s resiliency, governance and operational standards into digital markets would establish the foundation for responsible institutional adoption at scale.

NYSE’s choice also follows two other Avalanche projects. In July, Japanese financial technology company Progmat said it had moved more than 452 billion yen of digital securities onto a dedicated Avalanche blockchain. In September, Aave Labs announced plans for a lending service on Avalanche that would let financial firms borrow Tether’s USAT stablecoin using tokenized assets as collateral.

Market data after the announcement

AVAX rose as much as 10% on Monday before easing to $8.86, still more than 8% higher, according to CoinGecko data at 3:22 p.m. UTC. It was the top earner among the 100 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.

AVAX’s market capitalization stood at around $3.95 billion, with $439.7 million traded over the previous day. DeFiLlama reported $633 million in total value locked on Avalanche, up 4% over the prior 24 hours.

Regulatory approval is the next checkpoint. If granted, the platform could launch before year-end 2026 and make Avalanche the shared settlement ledger for tokenized equities traded around the clock.