The New York Stock Exchange, a leading U.S. exchange alongside Nasdaq, is working on a new trading platform that would allow round-the-clock, year-round stock trading based on blockchain, or distributed ledger, technology.

Intercontinental Exchange, the NYSE parent, said on Jan. 19 that the NYSE has completed development of a trading platform for the trading and settlement of tokenised securities and is seeking approval from regulators.

Tokenised securities refer to securities that use blockchain, a technology used for cryptocurrencies, to manage issuance and distribution information.

They are similar to existing electronic securities in that they record securities in digitised form rather than paper certificates. They differ in that they do not have a centralised registration and management system and instead use decentralised blockchain technology.

Investors will be able to freely trade tokenised securities on the new platform 24 hours a day, year-round, and exchange them for traditional stocks or exchange-traded funds.

Orders will also be possible by amount, enabling fractional investment in listed shares with small sums, and real-time settlement will take place after trades are executed.

The NYSE currently uses a settlement method in which settlement takes place after 1 business day following a trade, known as T+1 settlement.

The NYSE also explained that users will be able to trade on the new platform based on stablecoins.

Stablecoins refer to cryptocurrencies whose value is pegged to a specific asset such as the U.S. dollar.

The NYSE explained that the launch of a tokenised securities exchange based on blockchain technology will require approval from U.S. regulators.

In recent developments, major U.S. banks Goldman Sachs and Bank of New York Mellon decided to offer institutional investors a way to invest in money market funds issued as tokenised securities, and the use of tokenised securities is expanding on Wall Street.

Michael Blaugrund (마이클 블로그런드), vice president of strategic initiatives at ICE, said, "Supporting tokenised securities is a decisive turning point in ICE's strategy to operate on-chain market infrastructure for trading and settlement, custody and capital formation as global finance enters a new era."

[Yonhap News Agency]