Nasdaq to Offer 23-Hour Trading for U.S. Stocks, Intensifying Competition with Tokenized Stocks

Nasdaq will transition to a system that allows U.S. stocks to be traded for 23 hours a day, five days a week, starting December 6, 2026. This was revealed in an 8-K filing submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The trading hours will significantly extend from the current approximately 16 hours, with only one hour allocated for system maintenance.

The SEC approved the related proposal on April 10. The actual operation will depend on updates to the clearing system of the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) and the infrastructure of the Securities Information Processor (SIP).

Tokenized stocks refer to financial products that issue rights linked to actual stocks on a blockchain, allowing them to be traded. They are characterized by their ability to facilitate 24-hour trading, fractional ownership, and quick settlements.

Two Sessions: Day and Night

According to Chuck Mack, Senior Vice President of Nasdaq's North American Markets, the new system will divide trading hours into two sessions: day and night. The day session will run from 4 AM to 8 PM Eastern Time, followed by a one-hour pause, with the night session from 9 PM to 4 AM the next morning. The pause will also be used for switching operations between trading days.

Mack explained, "This is not just about extending trading hours. The goal is to broaden access to the world's most dynamic and liquid market for more investors."

Capturing Asian Order Flow

The newly established night session will cover the daytime hours of major Asian markets. This will make it easier for Asian investors to buy and sell U.S. stocks while providing Nasdaq with an opportunity to capture cross-border capital and trading flows from the Asia-Pacific region.

The amount of U.S. stocks held by foreign investors has increased by 97% since 2019, reaching $17 trillion by mid-2024. As trading windows expand, investors around the world will have less need to align their trading rhythms with New York time.

Competition with Tokenized Stocks

The U.S. stock market currently operates for about 16 hours a day and is completely closed on weekends. If important information is released after trading hours, positions cannot be adjusted. In contrast, tokenized stocks offer 24/7 trading and rapid settlements, attracting users, particularly younger ones, to platforms like Hyperliquid and Binance.

According to data from The Block, the share of tokenized stocks in the RWA (Real World Assets) market has risen to 14.9%, expanding approximately 2.9 times from 5.1% at the beginning of the year. RWA.xyz reports that the number of holders has increased by 90.33% to 1.35 million over the past 30 days, with monthly transaction amounts rising by 191.1% to $23.81 billion.

The leading service is Ondo Finance with approximately $870 million. Binance's bStock and xStocks follow, with the top three services accounting for about 77% of the market. The SEC is also considering innovation exemption measures for tokenized stocks, which, if realized, would allow for 24-hour trading of tokenized products for stocks like Apple and Tesla.

Competition Focused on Rights and Settlement

In the short term, the introduction of night trading will provide market makers of tokenized stocks with stable price references. Previously, it was difficult to reference continuous spot prices after traditional markets closed, leading to higher hedging costs. This sometimes resulted in wider trading spreads and lower quality of price data used by DeFi oracles.

In the long term, the trading time advantage that tokenized stocks have enjoyed will diminish. The focus of competition will shift to how much shareholder rights, including voting rights and dividends, can be provided and how efficiently settlements can be made. Products that only provide synthetic exposure or track stock prices may find their differentiation opportunities shrinking.

Nasdaq has received SEC approval for a pilot program to trade and settle Russell 1000 constituents and major stock index ETFs in tokenized form in March 2026. The 23-hour trading will also serve as a venue to pre-verify the stability of clearing, market making, and risk management systems during the night hours.