Nasdaq Chief Executive Officer Adena Friedman believes that blockchain-based tokenization could unlock tens of billions of dollars of collateral at financial markets. Ms. Friedman told CNBC during the TOKEN2049 conference in Singapore on October 8 that converting debt, cash and other assets into tokens could make it easier to move them around. Equally importantly, she added, tokenizing the money involved in such a transaction might help the financial sector to make better use of its funds.
Tokenization could free up tens of billions of dollars in capital tied up in assets used as collateral across the global financial system, Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman said.
Tokenizing assets such as Treasurys, equities and money market funds, along with the flow of money, could make collateral “very fluid,” Friedman told CNBC at TOKEN2049 in Singapore.
Find out how tokenization can drive the shift towards fully 24/7 markets: https://t.co/lknPPO8InI
— CNBC (@CNBC) October 11, 2026
Collateral, an asset that a business deposits with a bank to cover a trade, loan or other obligation, is one area where such a move could create value. The problem with using, repossessing, or otherwise dealing with it is that, under the existing system, it involves multiple custodians, settlements and clearing mechanisms.
Ms. Friedman believes that blockchain technology could streamline this process and make it more efficient. “If you tokenize all those instruments along with the flow of money, then the collateral becomes very fluid,” she noted.
The tens of billions of dollars of unlockable collateral that Friedman cited during her interview is a projection based on potential efficiencies that could be gained from tokenization. It does not reflect a figure that Nasdaq has already been able to achieve through this technology.
The CEO noted that there has been an increase in interest from institutional investors in the space over the last year. In part, she believes that this reflects the growing willingness of policymakers to embrace the opportunities that tokenization can offer. The passage of the U.S. GENIUS Act last year, which created a federal regulatory regime for payment stablecoins, is one example of this trend.
Nasdaq has been at the forefront of this movement for some time. The company’s investment arm agreed last month to invest $100 million in Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, in order to further its work on building infrastructure for tokenized equity. This collaboration, which was first announced in March 2026, seeks to connect the blockchain and stock ecosystems.
The two companies plan to do this by bringing “regulated markets infrastructure, including protections for shareholders and market participants, onto blockchain protocols.” Nasdaq Equity Tokens, a product that the firms plan to launch sometime in Q2 of 2027 (depending on a number of factors), will enable users to buy and sell tokenized stocks. The transaction value of the deal was estimated at $21 billion.
The interest that Nasdaq has shown in tokenization is part of a larger trend. On October 8, Securitize announced the creation of blockchain-based tokens backed by 12 stocks, including Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Alphabet, Tesla and Amazon. These products, which were originally slated to launch on the Solana blockchain, would have been available to qualified investors in jurisdictions where such a product was permitted. The tokens would represent shares in the company’s securities, which Securitize will hold in custodial accounts.
As Ms. Sequeira observed in his note, it is critical to distinguish between real tokenized shares and something that merely tracks the price of shares. In the former case, the token would represent the full value of the underlying asset, while offering the same rights and economic benefits subject to any limitations imposed by law.
Regulators around the world are also taking steps to facilitate the growth of this sector. A new SEC framework that went into effect in September of 2026 created a provisional, conditional exemption that allowed certain tokenized securities marketplaces to operate with certain restrictions.
Ms. Friedman also spoke about the potential for markets to move toward 24/7 trading. Such a system would require that banks, brokers, and other financial institutions be able to post and liquidate collateral around the clock. Nasdaq is considering using artificial intelligence to help financial institutions to do this.
Ms. Friedman warned that while tokenization would help to make markets more efficient, it was not a solution that could be applied to every asset class. “There isn’t enough liquidity in most asset classes to support 24/7 settlement, which is what you would need for 24/7 trading,” she said. The success of any such initiative, she suggested, would depend on the technology, regulation and market infrastructure needed to support it, as well as on the financial institutions’ willingness to take on the risk and responsibility that it entailed.
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