Avalanche leads crypto gains after NYSE picks its blockchain for tokenized stocks

What happened

The New York Stock Exchange has chosen Avalanche to supply the ledger and settlement layer for a planned platform that would trade tokenized stocks around the clock, Ava Labs announced on Monday. Decrypt reported that Avalanche will serve as core ledger technology for the venue, which is being developed by exchange parent Intercontinental Exchange and still needs regulatory approval. Cointelegraph reported that the platform could launch before the end of 2026 if approved, citing The Wall Street Journal.

Under the plan, investors would be able to buy and sell digital representations of stocks across multiple blockchains, while Avalanche records trades and helps complete settlement. NYSE's Dennis Lee, head of digital issuance, said the exchange is examining how blockchain can broaden its equities business and that it selects technology based on the task, according to Cointelegraph. The platform is intended to support trading, clearing and settlement outside standard U.S. market hours; traditional sessions run on weekdays from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern, with settlement often taking at least a business day.

AVAX reacted strongly. Cointelegraph reported that the token rose as much as 10% on Monday and was the best performer among the 100 largest cryptocurrencies by market value. It later traded at $8.86, still more than 8% higher on the day, with a market capitalization of about $3.95 billion and $439.7 million in 24-hour volume. By Wednesday, U.Today reported AVAX at $8.54, up 2.7% over 24 hours and 4% on the day, while Decrypt earlier put the token at $8.64, up 3.6% in a day.

Why it matters

The selection gives Avalanche a role in one of the most closely watched efforts by a major U.S. exchange to bring stock trading onto blockchain rails. Analysts told Decrypt that the NYSE's choice provides institutional credibility and validates the use of blockchain for instant settlement and programmable financial workflows. Luther Maday of Mercuryo said the decision followed a year of testing, which he said signaled that Avalanche met checks on performance, reliability and control.

The deal is also deeper than simply issuing a tokenized asset on a network, Maday told Decrypt, because NYSE picked Avalanche for clearing and settlement. But analysts cautioned that the infrastructure role may not automatically create demand for AVAX. Carlos Guzman of GSR told Decrypt that trading will still happen off-chain and that NYSE activity will run on dedicated Avalanche infrastructure rather than the public C-Chain, where most network activity occurs.

What the data shows

Cointelegraph reported that Avalanche's total value locked stood at $633 million, up 4% in 24 hours, according to DeFiLlama. U.Today reported that tokenized assets on Avalanche totaled $1.7 billion and that the network had recently passed 1.6 billion transactions. U.Today also noted that AVAX had fallen more than 21% over the previous month and bottomed near $7.82 before the NYSE news.

Background

The NYSE first disclosed plans for the tokenized stock platform in January. In September, Ava Labs said the exchange had spent about a year testing Avalanche, but the final decision was not confirmed until this week, according to Cointelegraph. John Nahas, chief business officer at Ava Labs, told Cointelegraph that conversations with the NYSE began nearly a year ago and described the progress as an important step toward blockchain becoming foundational financial infrastructure.

Other financial firms are pursuing similar tokenization projects. Cointelegraph reported that Nasdaq plans to invest $100 million in Kraken parent Payward for tokenized stocks, with an expected launch in the second quarter of 2027, and that DTCC launched a service in October for converting traditional securities into digital tokens. Decrypt reported that NYSE has worked with Blockchain.com to sell tokenized stocks and ETFs to crypto investors, while ICE is working with OKX on a 24/7 tokenized stock venue under an SEC exemption. Avalanche has also drawn other tokenization work: Progmat moved more than 452 billion yen of digital securities onto a dedicated Avalanche blockchain in July, and Aave Labs announced a September plan for a lending service on Avalanche using tokenized assets as collateral.

What to watch

Several details remain unresolved. The platform still requires regulatory approval, and NYSE plans to deploy a custom Avalanche-based blockchain rather than use the public Avalanche network, according to U.Today and Decrypt. Maday told Decrypt that observers should watch how AVAX is used within that dedicated infrastructure, as well as stablecoin liquidity, validator activity and network fees. Misha Putiatin of Symbiotic told Decrypt that the central question is whether Avalanche can capture value from such arrangements, a challenge other blockchains have faced.

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