Wall Street's Crypto Embrace: Tokenized Equities & 24/7 Trading

Crypto isn't just a fringe experiment anymore. It's a full-blown movement, as traditional financial firms capitulate to the gravitational pull of digital assets. This shift marks a important moment for an industry that once eyed crypto with deep suspicion.

The Shift in Financial Dynamics

Wall Street's historic rivalry with crypto is dissipating. Financial institutions are scrambling to satisfy retail and institutional appetite for digital assets. David Ripley, co-CEO of Kraken, notes that nearly all traditional financial services companies will soon offer crypto options like bitcoin and ethereum.

Ripley sees 2026 as a watershed year. Banks and brokerages aren't just catering to retail investors but also to institutions and high-net-worth clients. It's a seismic shift in how finance views digital assets.

A Convergence of Mega-Trends

The market momentum is undeniable. AI, stablecoins, tokenization, and extended-hours trading are all converging, pushing financial markets into uncharted territory. Investing is becoming more accessible, with a wider range of assets available around the clock.

Ripley predicts the rise of tokenized versions of traditional assets, with publicly traded stocks next in line. If the AI can hold a wallet, who writes the risk model? That's the question as tokenized equities loom large on the horizon.

Market Resilience and Future Prospects

Nasdaq CFO Sarah Youngwood assures us that U.S. markets can handle the upcoming wave of trillion-dollar IPOs, even as SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic prepare to go public. The system's resilience is designed for both emerging AI startups and established giants.

SpaceX is expected to debut on Nasdaq soon, aiming to raise $75 billion. This move could value the company at $1.7 trillion, making it the largest IPO ever. But the big question is whether traditional investors are ready for a financial landscape dominated by crypto and 24/7 trading.

Tokenization: A New Era of Access

Tokenization is expanding what investors can own. Kraken is leading the charge, announcing plans to offer tokenized IPO shares to retail investors. Ripley argues that increased access is long overdue, as many ordinary investors have been locked out of high-growth opportunities until it's too late.

Yet, slapping a model on a GPU rental isn't a convergence thesis. The infrastructure has to match the ambition. Decentralized compute sounds great until you benchmark the latency.

As financial markets become more global, digital, and always-on, the stakes are incredibly high. Are investors, and the systems that support them, prepared for this brave new world?