Avalanche's AVAX token rose as much as 10% on Monday, making it the top performer among the 100 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, after the New York Stock Exchange said it plans to use the Avalanche blockchain to settle trades on a new platform for trading tokenized stocks around the clock.
AVAX later eased to $8.86, still up more than 8% on the day, according to CoinGecko data as of 03:22 p.m. UTC. The token has a market cap of around $3.95 billion, with $439.7 million traded over the past day. The Avalanche blockchain's total value locked stood at $633 million, up 4% over the past 24 hours, according to DeFiLlama.
How the platform will work
Ava Labs said the NYSE will use Avalanche's blockchain to keep track of stock trades and help complete transactions on its planned trading platform. The platform will let investors buy and sell digital versions of stocks on different blockchains, while Avalanche will be used to record those trades and make sure transactions are completed.
"At the NYSE, we're looking at how blockchain technology can expand what we offer in equities, and we're picking the right technology for each job," Dennis Lee, the head of digital issuance at NYSE, said in an announcement.
Lee said the ledger that records and settles trades needs to be fast and reliable, allow the exchange to control who can take part, keep costs predictable and have a large community of developers behind it. "Avalanche meets all those needs," he said.
The NYSE first announced plans for the platform in January. In September, Ava Labs revealed that the exchange had spent about a year testing Avalanche, but the blockchain's final selection was not confirmed until Monday. The platform could launch before the end of 2026 if it receives regulatory approval, according to The Wall Street Journal.
"Our first conversations with the NYSE team began nearly a year ago, and it's remarkable how quickly we've progressed toward supporting this infrastructure," John Nahas, chief business officer at Ava Labs, told Cointelegraph. "It's an important step toward blockchain becoming foundational financial infrastructure."
Wall Street's tokenization push
The deal reflects a broader effort by Wall Street firms to use blockchain technology to make stock trading faster and allow investors to trade outside regular market hours. Traditional US stock markets are typically open from 9:30 am to 4:00 pm EST on weekdays, with trades often taking at least one business day to settle.
Other major financial firms are also investing in blockchain infrastructure for stock trading:
- In September, Nasdaq announced plans to invest $100 million in Kraken's parent company, Payward, to launch tokenized stocks, with an expected launch in the second quarter of 2027.
- In October, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation launched a service allowing financial firms to turn traditional securities into digital tokens.
"Today marks the culmination of years of work to bring tokenized securities into a regulated framework supported by trusted market infrastructure," DTCC CEO Frank La Salla said at the time. "By extending DTC's resiliency, governance and operational standards into digital markets, we are establishing the foundation for responsible institutional adoption at scale."
The NYSE deal follows other efforts to bring traditional financial assets onto Avalanche specifically. In July, Japanese financial technology company Progmat announced it had moved more than 452 billion yen worth of digital securities onto a dedicated Avalanche blockchain. In September, Aave Labs announced plans to launch a lending service on Avalanche that would let financial firms borrow Tether's USAT stablecoin using tokenized assets as collateral.
