Author: Jason Rosenthal, a16z Operating Partner

Translation: Hu Tao, ChainCatcher

Wall Street is no longer just exploring blockchain, but is migrating towards it.

For years, institutions that form the backbone of global capital markets—exchanges, clearinghouses, and electronic trading platforms—have been watching, and now they are turning to on-chain solutions.

What is currently happening is the largest infrastructure upgrade in capital markets since the rise of electronic trading thirty years ago.

But most people will not realize this until the transformation is complete.

Why Shift Now: Speed Changes Everything

All institutions moving in this direction are firmly convinced of one thing—on-chain infrastructure will significantly enhance the speed of capital circulation. History has clearly proven this.

Think about the development of electronic trading in the 1990s: before the emergence of Electronic Communication Networks (ECNs) and online brokers, a trade took minutes to complete, spreads were calculated in fractions, and trading permissions were restricted by geography and funds. Later, the infrastructure changed. Spreads significantly decreased. Commissions dropped from $150 to $9.95, ultimately reaching zero. Trading volumes exploded. Retail participation also surged. The market of the 2000s was vastly different from that of the 1990s—not only were prices lower, but the scale was larger.

Tokenization applies the same logic to the entire global financial system: 24/7 markets, instant settlement, seamless cross-border distribution, breaking the former six-figure minimum asset segmentation lock, and real-time collateral flows instead of overnight stasis. Higher trading speeds. Broader participation. A larger market pie.

But what does tokenization really mean? Tokenized assets are digital representations of Real World Assets (RWAs)—such as government bonds, Apple stocks, real estate contracts—recorded on the blockchain in the form of programmable tokens. Unlike the previous scenario where custodians tracked ownership through centralized databases during specific business hours in certain time zones, tokenized assets exist on-chain: transferable, programmable, and can be settled instantly at any time around the globe.

They are not derivatives but actual assets—and have a more robust underlying architecture.

Institutions have begun to take action.

In December 2025, DTCC received a no-objection letter from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), authorizing it to tokenize real world assets on an approved blockchain. DTCC handled $37 trillion in transactions in 2024. Its goal is to launch tokenized services for U.S. Treasury bonds in the first half of 2026.

On January 19, 2026, the New York Stock Exchange announced the launch of a platform for 24/7 on-chain trading and settlement of U.S. stocks and ETFs—including fractional share trading, instant settlement, and stablecoin financing—and partnered with BNY and Citigroup to support tokenized deposits at the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) clearinghouse. The world's most iconic stock exchanges are moving toward on-chain trading.

Tradeweb completed its first on-chain real-time full chain financing of U.S. Treasury bonds with USDC in August 2025—this transaction was completed on a Saturday, bypassing traditional settlement windows, with participants including Bank of America, Citadel Securities, DTCC, and Virtu Financial. Since then, this financing model has expanded quarterly, now covering cross-border and intraday settlements. Nasdaq submitted its proposed rule changes to the SEC in September 2025.

This increasingly looks like a migration rather than a series of isolated experiments.

Implicit Costs in the Current System

Another factor driving all of this is that existing markets are built around intermediaries rather than the market itself.

Let’s take a look at a typical securities transaction: traders pay spreads to brokers. In institutional trading, prime brokers charge financing fees. Exchanges and transfer agents take commissions from this. Custodians charge custody fees. DTCC charges fees during clearing, net settlement, and settlement processes. Even if the U.S. achieves T+1 settlement in 2024—this reform has taken decades, as previously it required several days—capital remains locked overnight, which amounts to a "structural tax" on all participants.

Smart contracts and atomic settlement break this deadlock. Now, both parties can complete transactions instantly on-chain, and the transaction results are final.

The profit margins of the existing system—its profitability—have not disappeared… but have become opportunities for new entrants. In other words, their profit margins are your opportunity to build a new system.

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The ultimate breakthrough lies in regulatory clarity—and this process has finally begun. If the current momentum can be sustained, the impact of the CLARITY Act on traditional finance will be as significant as the achievements of the Genius Act in popularizing and accelerating the development of stablecoins.

The safeguards needed by large institutions are beginning to emerge. So, what does this mean for builders?

The transition of global financial infrastructure to on-chain will drive the demand for entirely new categories of products and services.

The fastest-moving existing companies are not your competitors—but your clients. DTCC does not want to build middleware. The New York Stock Exchange does not want to build compliance tools. Tradeweb does not want to build cross-border distribution layers.

These companies are building regulated, institutional-grade infrastructure. Founders are responsible for building all the products that run on top of it.

This is reminiscent of the model from the 1990s. Exchanges did not build E*TRADE. They did not build Bloomberg terminals. They did not build order management systems or prime broker platforms that defined the next era. These platforms were created by founders who foresaw future trends.

More participants, faster circulation speeds, less friction.

Higher liquidity, larger markets.

History has clearly indicated the ultimate direction of all this.

The window for building tokenized financial market infrastructure has opened. Seize the opportunity and develop steadily.

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