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Source: Nasdaq; Compilation: Bitchain Vision
Note: On September 8, 2025, Nasdaq stated that it submitted a document to the US SEC to facilitate trading of tokenized securities on the Nasdaq stock market.At the same time, Chuck Mack, senior vice president of North American markets at Nasdaq, discussed and interpreted the new proposal with the Nasdaq News Room to see what Nasdaq thinks.
Nasdaq News Room: Simply put, what is the purpose of Nasdaq submitting this new document to the US SEC?
Chuck Mack:The proposed rule changes in Nasdaq will allow member companies and investors to trade tokenized stock securities and exchange-traded products (ETPs) on the Nasdaq market.The goal is to integrate digital assets into Nasdaq’s existing infrastructure and systems, which will promote financial innovation while maintaining stability, equity and investor protection.
Specifically, the proposal document provides a simple and clear way to realize the transaction of tokenized securities under the existing regulatory framework, using a depositary trust company (DTC) to clear and settle transactions in token form.
It works as follows: Securities can be traded in traditional or tokenized form on the Nasdaq.
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Traditional forms are digital representations of ownership and rights, but do not use distributed ledgers or blockchain technology
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Tokenized forms are digital representations of ownership and rights, using distributed ledgers or blockchain technology
After the order is entered, participants can choose to clear and settle in regular or tokenized form, and the exchange will communicate the participant’s instructions to the custodial trust company (DTC).All stocks will be traded on Nasdaq, with the same order input and execution rules, have the same identification code (CUSIP) as traditional stocks, and give their holders the same rights and interests as traditional stocks.
Nasdaq News Room: What exactly is tokenized securities?
Chuck Mack:There are two components here: tokens and security.
In this context, tokens refer to the digital representation of any asset created and recorded on the blockchain – blockchain is the first data storage method promoted by Bitcoin.Tokens may include currencies like Bitcoin, or tokens pegged to the US dollar, such as the stablecoin Tether (USDT), or may be any other form of blockchain-based representation of ownership or rights.
At the same time, a securities are a tradable financial asset that represents the ownership or credit of a company—such as a stock or a bond.
Therefore, tokenized securities are representative of these traditional financial instruments that have been documented on blockchain or other distributed ledger technologies.
From our perspective, it is important to emphasize that while tokenized securities are technically different from securities currently traded on the Nasdaq market, they still represent the same store of value as traditional securities, according to our proposal.
After all, we are already living in a digital world.Today, stocks and other securities are presented and recorded through digital means, so tokenization is just another way to present assets digitally.
Nasdaq News Room: What key details should ordinary investors know about the Nasdaq proposal?
Chuck Mack:Fundamentally, Nasdaq recommends leveraging existing infrastructure in the U.S. market to enable tokenized securities trading.
There is a huge demand for Nasdaq-traded securities worldwide, and tokenization technology is attracting interest.The solution we propose is to enable market participants to obtain digital representations of this tokenized security using a system they are familiar with and trusted.
The proposed rule changes will allow investors to choose whether the stock or ETP they want to trade is presented in tokenized form or in traditional digital form.likeIf they choose tokenization, DTC will be responsible for the backend of clearing and settlement transactions and record the asset as a blockchain-based token.
It is worth noting that this transaction will still be conducted under existing federal regulations of the US Securities SEC to ensure fair and orderly transactions.
This is a key point we put forward in the document: Current U.S. rules do not exclude different types of securities representatives.If you are trading stocks and we have DTC tokenize them after trading, it is no different from the perspective of how the market works, how you trade, how you get the best execution, or how you buy and sell on the trading platform.
Importantly, traditional types of stocks and tokenized stocks have the same value, the same rights and interests, and the same market identification number.
Nasdaq believes that securities tokenization can not only be achieved under existing market frameworks and guidelines, but should be so.Because of this, this proposal is an important way to bring tokenization into the market: it not only allows this new technology to continue to evolve and be widely accepted, but also ensures that the investor protection mechanism we have established over the past decades can be maintained.
Nasdaq News Room: Why is Nasdaq interested in tokenized securities in the first place?
Chuck Mack:In some ways, this is to meet demand: many market players, including Nasdaq, believe that tokenization has the potential to benefit investors, issuers and the broader economy.
Blockchain technology can bring many potential efficiency improvements, including faster settlement speeds, more complete audit trails, and streamlined order, transaction and settlement processes.In addition, once equity assets are blockchainized, they may be used in a completely new way.
All of this potential means people are looking forward to this technology, and we also know from the market,The market has huge demand for tokenized securities trading.We want to be part of the solution to help the market continue to grow, to continuously meet the needs of investors, and to ensure that it is implemented effectively.
Past market failures tell us that governance, flexibility and investor protection must be ensured from the outset.
Nasdaq is committed to becoming a trusted cornerstone in the global financial system, which means adapting to market changes and embracing new technologies in a way that prioritizes investors, thereby promoting capital accumulation.Ultimately, it means it all depends on the choice.If investors and market participants have a need for a specific approach and we can implement it in a way that maintains market integrity, then we want to give them this choice.
Nasdaq News Room: Why did Nasdaq propose this special model to bring tokenized securities trading to the market?
Chuck Mack: We want to make the trading process of tokenized securities simple and transparent for investors, while taking advantage of the current resilient and trustworthy stock trading ecosystem.The proposed rule changes are intended to promote innovation in existing market infrastructure and structures, bring new opportunities for investors, and strengthen the standards for the normal operation of the U.S. market, as follows:
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Scale and Complexity: The U.S. stock market is the deepest and most liquid market in the world, processing billions of transactions every day.Any new system must run at this scale.With elasticity, redundancy and failure protection.
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Investor Protection: The U.S. stock market has safeguards and supervision measures to safeguard the responsibilities and obligations of companies involved in the transaction life cycle, thereby ensuring shareholder rights, dividends, and proxy voting.
Our proposal also explicitly seeks to maintain tokenized securities transactions within the framework of the existing system to ensure price discovery, disclosure and optimal execution.The goal is to ensure that these principles remain effective in the development and modernization of the market.
Another motivation to improve existing systems is that Nasdaq wants to prevent fragmented markets consisting of different versions of the same asset across multiple blockchains, this market also provides tokenized securities trading, but does not work well together – especially when rules are inconsistent.If this happens, transparency may be reduced, liquidity may be dispersed, and prices may be confusing.
Capital raising under the premise of investor protection is crucial to a good market functioning, and a good market functioning is essential to maintaining economic prosperity – at Nasdaq, we always emphasize that this comes down to liquidity, transparency and integrity.We want to ensure that these pillars are protected as the market develops, which is exactly what we submit our application.
NASDAQ News Room: NASDAQ recently announced changes to its listing standards, followed by news reports on corporate governance of crypto treasury.How does this relate to today’s announcement?
Chuck Mack: These issues are independent of each other.First, we recently announced further improvements to the listing standards of Nasdaq to address key issues in liquidity and trading for companies in the current market environment.These improvements are primarily targeted at certain micro-stock companies with low liquidity profiles.
Secondly, we have noticed recent media reports about crypto treasury companies.Nasdaq has not implemented any changes or new rules for these companies.As with any market development, Nasdaq consistently provides guidance to our listed companies to apply existing listing rules, including shareholder approval rules for any securities issuance of listed companies.
Third, today’s announcement represents a separate filing with the U.S. SEC to facilitate trading of tokenized securities on its market.
Although these issues vary, there is a common main line that guides Nasdaq’s actions in the capital market, which is to achieve the goal of optimizing capital formation, protecting investors and ensuring market integrity.
Nasdaq News Room: What’s next for tokenized securities?
Chuck Mack: The documents submitted by Nasdaq to the US SEC will be open for comment, and we look forward to hearing different opinions.In fact, part of the reason we submit documents is to facilitate discussion in a very transparent way.
Meanwhile, the Nasdaq team will work closely with customers and stakeholders to explain our ideas and gather feedback on how best to drive the industry.
Looking around the world, the adoption of tokenization obviously requires extensive coordination across the industry.Market infrastructure providers, regulators, issuers, asset managers and fintech companies will all play an important role.
We welcome these discussions because it ultimately relates to the core goal of Nasdaq to promote economic progress for all.
Economic prosperity depends on innovation and participation, and these forces require market structures that reduce friction and coordinate incentives.Our tokenization solutions represent a step forward in the development of global financial markets.
