Abstract
Recent commentary around the New York Stock Exchange's plans to support 24×7 trading of tokenized equities has sparked renewed optimism across Wall Street and the digital asset ecosystem. Proponents argue that continuous trading could resolve liquidity challenges that have constrained tokenized stock markets to date. While this shift is meaningful, it does not resolve the deeper structural limitations embedded in today's public market infrastructure.
This article examines why extended trading hours—while directionally positive—do not, by themselves, unlock real-time settlement, atomic delivery-versus-payment, or native digital ownership. More importantly, it explains why these developments ultimately reinforce the need for a clean-slate market structure, and how Ohanae is positioned as a complementary platform for the next generation of tokenized securities.
Why 24×7 Trading Matters—and Why It Isn't Enough
The NYSE's exploration of a 24×7 tokenized trading venue reflects an important market truth:
digital assets do not sleep, but traditional markets do.
For tokenized equities to function credibly alongside crypto markets, liquidity providers must be able to hedge risk continuously. Extended trading hours help solve this mismatch and reduce weekend and overnight liquidity gaps that have challenged early tokenized stock models.
In that sense, the NYSE's initiative is not surprising—it is necessary.
But it is also incomplete.
Extended trading hours address when securities trade. They do not fundamentally change how trades settle, who owns the asset at any given moment, or where counterparty risk resides.
Those questions are structural, not temporal.
The Structural Constraints Remain
Even in a 24×7 configuration, legacy public markets still rely on:
- Central clearinghouses and risk mutualization
- Net settlement rather than atomic settlement
- Intermediated custody and omnibus accounts
- Margin, collateral, and delayed finality
These mechanisms were designed to manage risk in a world where trades do not settle instantly. They are deeply embedded in Reg NMS market architecture and cannot be removed simply by extending trading hours or tokenizing record-keeping.
As a result, a 24×7 exchange can improve access and liquidity—but it cannot deliver true real-time settlement or direct digital ownership without fundamentally rethinking the stack.
Tokenization Within Legacy Markets vs. Clean-Slate Markets
The market is now visibly diverging into two distinct approaches:
1. Exchange-Anchored Tokenization
This model tokenizes existing securities while preserving:
- Exchange-centric trading
- Clearinghouse settlement
- Traditional custody frameworks
It is evolutionary, not revolutionary. It improves efficiency at the edges but remains bound by legacy assumptions.
2. Clean-Slate Market Structures
This model begins from first principles:
- Cash-only, atomic settlement
- Direct investor ownership
- Native digital issuance
- Principal-led liquidity
- Continuous 24×7 markets by design
Rather than retrofitting blockchain into existing infrastructure, clean-slate markets are built specifically for real-time finality and programmable securities.
Ohanae operates squarely in this second category.
Why Extended Trading Actually Strengthens the Clean-Slate Case
Ironically, the NYSE's 24×7 initiative strengthens—rather than weakens—the argument for clean-slate markets.
Here's why:
1. Investor expectations shift
Once investors experience always-on markets, they begin asking harder questions:
- Why does settlement still take time?
- Why can't ownership update instantly?
- Why does counterparty risk still exist after execution?
2. Liquidity alone exposes settlement friction
Liquidity without instant finality highlights the mismatch between modern trading behavior and legacy post-trade processes.
3. Regulators gain structural clarity
As exchanges pursue regulatory approval for extended hours, the limits of existing rules become clearer—creating space for complementary market models rather than forced convergence.
In short, extended trading hours are a necessary step—but they shine a brighter light on what legacy markets still cannot do.
Ohanae's Role: Complementary, Not Competitive
Ohanae is not attempting to replace NYSE or Nasdaq.
Instead, it is designed to complement them by addressing capabilities that legacy exchanges cannot structurally provide:
- Atomic, cash-only settlement without clearinghouse netting
- Dealer-principal liquidity to support thin or emerging markets
- End-to-end digital ownership rather than beneficial interests
- Integrated capital formation, not just secondary trading
- Programmable corporate actions embedded at issuance
This is not regulatory arbitrage. It is market pluralism.
Just as ADRs, private markets, and alternative trading venues coexist alongside exchanges, clean-slate tokenized markets represent a new layer—purpose-built for real-time tokenized securities.
What This Means for Tokenized Public Securities
The enthusiasm around 24×7 tokenized trading confirms that the industry is moving in the right direction. But speed alone does not define a next-generation market.
The real inflection point comes when:
- Settlement is instantaneous and final
- Ownership is native and transparent
- Liquidity is continuous by design
- Capital formation and secondary trading live in the same system
Those outcomes require more than longer trading hours. They require a new market architecture.
Conclusion: Architecture, Not Hours, Define the Future
The NYSE's 24×7 tokenization plans mark an important milestone in the evolution of public markets. But they also make one thing unmistakably clear: extending legacy markets into a digital schedule does not transform their underlying structure.
Real-time tokenized securities demand a clean-slate approach—one that rethinks settlement, custody, liquidity, and ownership from the ground up.
That is the market Ohanae is building.
NYSE. Nasdaq. Now Ohanae.
Disclaimer
Ohanae Securities LLC is a subsidiary of Ohanae, Inc. and member of FINRA/SIPC. Additional information about Ohanae Securities LLC can be found on BrokerCheck. Ohanae Securities LLC is in discussions with FINRA about exploring the expansion of business lines for the broker/dealer. Any statements regarding abilities of Ohanae Securities LLC are subject to FINRA approval and there are no guarantees FINRA will approve the broker/dealer's expansion.
Ohanae Securities is seeking approval to be a special purpose broker-dealer that is performing the full set of broker-dealer functions with respect to crypto asset securities – including maintaining custody of these assets – in a manner that addresses the unique attributes of digital asset securities and minimizes risk to investors and other market participants. If approved, Ohanae Securities will limit its business to crypto asset securities to isolate risk and having policies and procedures to, among other things, assess a given crypto asset security's distributed ledger technology and protect the private keys necessary to transfer the crypto asset security.