Nasdaq is applying to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission( SEC) to implement a new 5×23 trading mechanism—that is, continuous trading five days a week, 23 hours a day. According to the plan, this system is expected to go live as early as the second half of 2026.

On the surface, Nasdaq's move is to serve Asian investors—allowing them to participate in U.S. stock market quotes instantly during local trading hours without staying up late. But the underlying logic goes far beyond that.

The real game-changer lies in tokenization. Nasdaq is converting stock assets into tokens and then selling these tokens to global investors via blockchain networks—achieving a nominal 5-day, 23-hour trading cycle. More deeply, this model directly dismantles cross-border investment restrictions and tax regulations imposed by different countries. In other words, once tokenized stocks are circulated, the original territorial and regulatory frameworks lose their constraints.

This is not just an upgrade of trading systems; it’s more like a major shift of traditional finance towards on-chain assets. The "24/7" world of Web3 is spreading from the crypto market to traditional stock markets.