The New York Stock Exchange is preparing for a future where Wall Street no longer closes. The exchange announced it is developing a tokenized securities platform that would enable round-the-clock trading, fractional share ownership, and immediate settlement of U.S. listed equities and ETFs. The project is being built by its parent company, Intercontinental Exchange, which owns and operates the NYSE and much of the infrastructure behind global financial markets.

This new digital platform is designed to combine the NYSE’s existing Pillar matching engine with blockchain-based post-trade systems. The goal is to preserve the regulatory protections investors expect while introducing features that traditional market plumbing has never supported. If approved by regulators, the platform would allow trading to continue 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with transactions settling instantly instead of waiting days to clear.

That change would mark a real shift in how markets work. Today’s equity trades still rely on multi-day settlement cycles that tie up capital and add risk during volatile market conditions. Tokenized capital allows trades to settle immediately, freeing up funds and reducing counterparty exposure. For everyday investors, the ability to buy shares in dollar amounts rather than full units could make expensive stocks more accessible and flexible to own.