## Secret Coordination: How SEC, DTCC, and Nasdaq Are Building an "Unstoppable" Future of Finance

Looking at recent moves in the US financial system, it becomes clear that nothing is accidental. In December 2025, Nasdaq filed a proposal with the SEC to implement **5 days a week, 23 hours a day** trading, leaving only 1 hour for maintenance and settlements. But this is not just a change in trading hours — it’s the final step in a carefully planned scenario to transform the entire financial architecture.

To understand where Wall Street is heading, we need to look back: in May 2024, the settlement cycle was shortened from T+2 to T+1, in September 2025 Nasdaq officially submitted a proposal for stock tokenization, and in November declared it a strategic priority. Almost simultaneously, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins stated in the media that within about 2 years, all US markets will operate on-chain. Meanwhile, in December, a subsidiary of DTCC, Depository Trust Company (DTC), received SEC approval to provide tokenization services in a controlled production environment, with an official launch planned for the second half of 2026.

Three institutions, three decisions, one direction — **this clock mechanism ticks consistently, each move has its role.**

## How does this financial system clock mechanism work?

Before the official transition to stock tokenization, Nasdaq must first prepare the entire infrastructure — which means that the architecture of TradFi, limited by physical reality, must learn to run faster.

Today, stock trading is a precisely interlocking system. Besides the exchange itself, brokers, clearing institutions, regulators, and stock companies are involved. To support 23-hour trading, everyone must work closely together:

Brokers need to extend customer service and risk control to a 24/7 mode — significantly increasing costs. Institutions like DTCC must handle settlements until 4 a.m. to align with the new “night trading, next-day settlement” scheme. Stock companies need to reset the pace of financial report releases, and the market must get used to “instant valuation of important information” at any time of day.

That last hour (from 20:00 to 21:00), which Nasdaq leaves every day, is not just a simple technical break — it’s a **“error tolerance window”** for the entire system. In the current centralized clearing mechanism, a physical pause is necessary to process data, synchronize collateral deposits, and isolate failures.

However, compared to the past, this last hour imposes almost unrealistic demands. In contrast, the crypto market based on blockchain, thanks to a distributed ledger and smart contracts with atomic settlements, operates 7×24×365 without any breaks. **This explains the true logic:** Nasdaq is not so much worried about Asian investors as it is adapting to the inevitable — the growing demand to operate in a rhythm similar to cryptocurrencies.

## What specific risks does “5×23” bring?

Extending trading hours theoretically attracts more capital, but in practice, it can lead to structural disruptions:

**Liquidity fragmentation:** Limited demand for trading is spread over a longer time axis. During the “night” hours of the “5×23” model, stock volume is naturally lower, leading to wider spreads, higher transaction costs, and increased volatility. During periods of particularly low liquidity, sharp price movements are easy to trigger.

**Change in valuation structure:** Thanks to the “5×23” model, Nasdaq takes in dispersed orders from night trading platforms, but for large participants, fragmentation does not disappear — it shifts from “off-market dispersion” to “time-based division on the market.” Such fragmentation significantly increases the costs of executing large orders.

**Black swan risks without a “digest window”:** In a 23-hour system, serious events (catastrophic results, regulator statements, geopolitical conflicts) can be immediately transformed into orders. The market no longer has time for a “night to digest” information. In a low-liquidity nighttime environment, such reactions easily cause price gaps, sharp fluctuations, and even irrational cascades — the impact of black swans grows exponentially.

## The last hour before the breakthrough

Looking at data: in Q2 2025, off-hours trading (before opening, after closing) already accounted for 11.5% of total US stock turnover. Night trading ceased to be marginal and became a battleground that major players cannot ignore.

However, once investors get used to “5×23 hours,” a natural question will arise: why this one-hour obstacle? Why not trade on weekends? Why not settle immediately?

The answer is: **the financial clock mechanism simply cannot tick faster within the current architecture.** Only tokenized assets that natively operate 7×24 on the blockchain can fill this last hour without bottlenecks.

That’s why Nasdaq, Coinbase, Ondo, Robinhood, and MSX are racing at a frantic pace — each wants to be ready when this last six-system cycle strikes midnight on-chain. The future may still be far away, but for the “old clock” of TradFi, time is truly running out.