[Market Analysis] The "Beast" on Wall Street Has Awakened... The New York Stock Exchange Will Counter Cryptocurrency with a "Dual Exchange" Strategy

Known as the heart of the global capital markets, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) has finally made a decision. This massive infrastructure with a 233-year history has officially launched the so-called “dual exchange” strategy, which involves maintaining the traditional stock trading system while operating a blockchain-based “24-hour on-chain exchange” in parallel. This is not just a simple technological upgrade. It is a declaration of changing the backbone of the stock market and a positive move by Wall Street towards the crypto ecosystem.

■ “Parallel” Breakthrough to Overcome the Innovator’s Dilemma… “Disrupting While Protecting”

Market-dominant operators face an unavoidable trap—the “innovator’s dilemma”: either be displaced by new technology to protect existing profit models or push forward new technology at the risk of destroying current cash-generating capabilities.

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of NYSE, has directly addressed this challenge. The answer is not “choice,” but “simultaneous execution.”

Exchange #1 adopts the traditional model, operating from 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM Eastern Standard Time, maintaining T+1 settlement and a mature architecture based on bank transfers. As the name suggests, this is the hub responsible for current cash flow.

Exchange #2 adopts a digital model, focusing on 365-day, 24-hour operation, on-chain real-time settlement, and stablecoin-based fund settlement. This is the forward operating base for capturing future markets.

The core is not simply running in parallel. The key is to invest the huge cash flows generated by the traditional exchange into R&D and expansion costs of the digital exchange. Once tokenized stocks become mainstream, NYSE will already hold a dominant market position. Conversely, even if the tokenization process is delayed, NYSE will still be the world’s largest exchange. This is a “safe-guarded offensive” that will never lose in any scenario.

■ “Crypto is not the enemy… just a tool, control is in our hands”

For a long time, the crypto camp has propagated the narrative that blockchain will replace traditional finance. However, this announcement once again confirms how ruthless Wall Street’s survival instinct is.

The platform NYSE is preparing is not merely an “extended version” of trading hours. Its concept is to bring the entire process—from asset issuance to trading, clearing, and custody—on-chain, and to combine it with NYSE’s matching engine “pillar.” This means embracing crypto technology but never relinquishing control of the trading infrastructure.

Particularly noteworthy is the plan to build a “tokenized deposit” system through cooperation with major banks such as BNY Mellon and Citigroup. The strategy is to eliminate the “time restrictions” long criticized in traditional finance, allowing margin deposits or fund transfers outside banking hours. This nearly declares an intention to directly seize the “24-hour” weapon that crypto is proud of.

■ ‘Tokenization’ is just the beginning… the next step is ‘Native Digital Securities’

The most fundamental change in this announcement is that it does not stop at simple asset tokenization. NYSE states that it will go beyond migrating existing assets onto blockchain and further support the issuance of “native digital securities” from the outset in digital form.

This is not about creating “replicas of real assets.” It means entering a completely new system: securities issued directly on the blockchain from the start, with voting rights and dividend payments automatically executed via smart contracts, forming a “fully digital stock” system.

NYSE plans to ensure that securities held on this digital platform also enjoy the same dividend rights and governance rights as current shareholders. Its goal is to open a channel for institutional investors to access on-chain assets while minimizing regulatory risks.

■ Who is the “Master of the Future”

Recently, Jeffrey Sprecher, CEO of ICE, stated during a $2 billion investment in Polymarket that this is a “strategic move to seize the future of tokenization and decentralized finance.” Symbolically, it indicates that Wall Street no longer views crypto as a fringe experiment but as a “tool for mainstream finance.”

Industry comments say, “Wall Street’s ‘sharks’ are taking the technology created by crypto ‘geeks’ and transforming it into their own weapons.” Ultimately, once efficiency is proven, liquidity will flow to places that are faster, cheaper, and more convenient. The commissions and data sovereignty generated at the end of this flow are likely to fall back into NYSE’s hands.

Users and investors will have to choose between “traditional security” and “digital efficiency.” However, NYSE seems unconcerned about which side people choose, as it holds different cards in each hand and is rewriting the rules of the game. When this 233-year-old giant awakens, the boundaries between traditional finance and crypto have already collapsed.