Despite operating within the same terrain, the traditional finance (trad-fi) arena and crypto have continued to be at loggerheads, at least somewhat.
That said, recent developments suggest that these two seemingly disparate worlds are continuing to converge. Last week, Nasdaq announced its plans to introduce 24-hour trading on its flagship U.S. exchange, a move mirroring that of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), which made a similar announcement late last year.
To elaborate, Nasdaq’s executive brass revealed that they plan on implementing round-the-clock trading capabilities by the second half of 2026, spurred largely by the surging international demand for U.S. equities.
Similarly, the NYSE is looking to extend trading on its all-electronic NYSE Arca exchange to 22 hours daily. Under this plan, trading would open at 1:30 a.m. and close at 11:30 p.m. ET on weekdays — a trend driven partly by the rise of cryptocurrency markets that never sleep.
From the outside looking in, such developments suggest that traditional exchanges are beginning to acknowledge what the blockchain world has demonstrated for years. However, to implement such a change would require a complete overhaul of the underlying infrastructure that has supported trad-fi markets for decades.
The 24/7 trading conundrum explained
While extended trading hours undoubtedly promise greater market accessibility, they also introduce certain challenges that stand to strain existing structures immensely. For instance, traditional markets have been designed to rely on batch processing, overnight reconciliations, and scheduled maintenance periods to function properly.
Not only that, these systems often lack the resilience, scalability, and real-time processing capabilities necessary for non-stop trading. Furthermore, the current T+2 settlement cycle (where trades settle two business days after execution) can result in serious functional bottlenecks when deployed within a 24/7 setup.
In fact, without major technological upgrades, clearinghouses could face unprecedented operational pressures, potentially increasing systemic risk rather than reducing it.
Last and perhaps most concerning is the liquidity challenge such that during traditional after-hours trading, reduced participation could lead to wider bid-ask spreads and increased volatility. Expanding this to 24 hours could magnify these concerns, potentially creating dangerous conditions for retail investors who might execute trades at highly unfavorable prices during off-peak hours.
Blockchains blueprint for tomorrow’s markets
To help alleviate many of the aforementioned problems, legacy entities have started to look toward blockchain-based finance solutions, as they have been built from the ground up for continuous operation.
For starters, the blockchain operates 24/7 by design, processing transactions continuously regardless of time zones or holidays. This is all thanks to the power of smart contracts that enable instant, programmable transactions without intermediaries, executing predefined conditions automatically.
Also, as traditional exchanges move toward round-the-clock trading, it seems reasonable for them to adopt blockchain mechanisms to solve long-standing infrastructure challenges. The tokenization of securities offers a particularly compelling solution. By representing stocks as on-chain assets, exchanges stand to enable instant settlement, and borderless trading — all while offering unparalleled transparency.
The immensity of this proposition has not gone unnoticed by several trad-fi juggernauts, with players like BlackRock, and Franklin Templeton, amongst several others already exploring tokenized funds and securities. Even Nasdaq has been investigating blockchain applications since 2015, with its Digital Assets Division focused on institutional adoption of these technologies.
Therefore, as markets across the globe have pushed to evolve toward continuous trading, hybrid exchanges like GRVT (pronounced “gravity”) have come forth to bring these two worlds together. To this point, the exchange offers up a unique hybrid model that combines the best of centralized and decentralized exchanges.
For instance, GRVT enables off-chain order matching at an impressive 600,000 transactions per second (all while providing on-chain settlements). Additionally, the platform’s self-custodial approach eliminates any counterparty risks — something that is of critical concern for many trad-fi institutions today.
If that wasn’t enough, through the use of smart contracts and ZKsync technology (a layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum), GRVT enables on-chain margin management while maintaining regulatory compliance thanks to its rigorous KYC and AML modules.
Lastly, as per the platform’s most recent roadmap announcement, GRVT is looking to incorporate stocks, securities, ETFs, and other regulated financial products into a suite of offerings, thus creating a compliant, trustless platform that blurs the lines between DeFi and TradFi.
The inevitable convergence is upon us
Looking toward the future of finance, one thing seems to be becoming increasingly clear, i.e. from here on out, the line between traditional and blockchain-based finance will only continue to blur. In this context, tomorrow’s financial landscape will likely combine the regulatory framework and institutional trust of traditional markets with the technological advantages of blockchain — a hybrid model exemplified by projects like GRVT. Interesting times ahead!!
