Nasdaq (NASDAQ: NDAQ) chief executive Adena Friedman has highlighted how representing traditional assets and cash movements as blockchain-based tokens could release substantial capital currently immobilized as collateral across global markets.
Speaking at the TOKEN2049 conference in Singapore, she explained that converting instruments such as US Treasury securities, equities, and money-market funds into digital tokens—while also tokenizing the accompanying cash flows—would make collateral far more mobile and reusable by banks and other institutions.
“If you tokenize all those instruments along with the flow of money, then the collateral becomes very fluid,” Friedman observed.
She added that the ability to tokenize money itself would open the door to tokenizing capital flows more broadly.
The result, in her view, could unlock tens of billions of dollars that now sit tied up while transactions clear through legacy systems that separate assets from settlement cash.
Institutional appetite for these approaches has strengthened over the past year, partly because the US GENIUS Act created a clearer regulatory path for stablecoins, giving traditional players greater confidence to experiment with programmable forms of money.
Friedman also noted that retail investors have long sought continuous trading access—roughly a decade ahead of many institutional setups—and that tokenization could help align the two.
Yet she cautioned that shifting markets toward true 24/7 operation is far from simple.
“Everything has to be real time all the time,” she said, stressing that artificial intelligence will be essential for continuous risk and operational management.
Not every asset, she pointed out, is liquid enough to support round-the-clock trading without creating new frictions.
Nasdaq itself has begun embedding digital agents into its risk-management tools; these agents currently offer recommendations and could eventually support more automated, real-time decisions by client banks.
The exchange has also moved to build supporting infrastructure, including a substantial investment by its venture arm in Kraken parent Payward to advance tokenized equity capabilities.
These remarks arrive against a backdrop of accelerating integration between traditional finance and decentralized systems, as mapped in a recent CB Insights research report produced in collaboration with Money20/20.
The “TradFi-DeFi Market Map 2026” identifies 167 private technology companies operating across 15 categories that supply the plumbing for this shift—ranging from stablecoin issuance platforms and crypto asset custody to permissioned institutional networks, tokenized deposit systems, and fund tokenization infrastructure.
The analysis underscores a growing convergence in which programmable money, real-time settlement, and embedded compliance coexist, allowing banks to evolve from simple movers of funds into orchestrators of trust, liquidity, and risk.
Among the standout findings is the rapid maturation of stablecoin-as-a-service platforms, which rank near the top of the report’s maturity index.
These tools let banks, fintechs, and enterprises launch branded stablecoin products without constructing the underlying issuance, reserve, custody, and compliance layers themselves. Examples include platforms partnering with established institutions for white-label issuance and regulated APIs.
Permissioned blockchain networks are likewise expanding beyond basic interbank payments into broader settlement uses such as repo markets, tokenized securities, and interoperability with public chains.
Tokenized deposits, meanwhile, enable regulated banks to add 24/7 programmable settlement while keeping the funds inside the traditional banking system and subject to existing deposit protections—an approach that appeals especially to community and regional banks seeking digital capabilities without full crypto exposure.
Concrete scale is already visible: the report notes roughly $17 billion in tokenized real-world assets residing on R3’s Corda network, used by major institutions including HSBC, Barclays, and BNY Mellon.
Other initiatives, such as multi-bank consortia for dollar stablecoins or tokenized deposit networks backed by US regional banks, illustrate how traditional players are building rather than merely observing.
Equity funding into stablecoin-related ventures spiked in 2025, while spot Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange-traded products drew institutional capital earlier.
Cross-border stablecoin payments gained traction first in emerging markets before advancing in the United States.
Friedman’s comments and the CB Insights mapping point to the same trajectory: tokenization is moving from experimentation toward infrastructure that can free trapped collateral, support continuous markets, and embed compliance.
Challenges remain around liquidity thresholds, operational readiness, and regulatory coordination, yet the private-company ecosystem catalogued in the report is supplying the specialized tools—custody, issuance, settlement, and monitoring—needed for banks and market operators to participate at scale. As these layers mature, capital markets stand to become more fluid, with greater connectivity potentially widening investor access to a broader range of assets.