Key Notes
- Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman says tokenization could release tens of billions of dollars currently tied up as collateral.
- Nasdaq has tested tokenized money-market fund collateral with Vanguard and Wellington on the Canton Network.
- Continuous markets would require banks to run risk and collateral management around the clock.
Nasdaq Inc. (NASDAQ: NDAQ) CEO Adena Friedman says tokenization could free tens of billions of dollars tied up as collateral across global finance, making it easier for banks and investment firms to move assets where they are needed.
Speaking to CNBC at TOKEN2049 in Singapore on October 8, Friedman pointed to Treasurys, equities, money-market funds and money itself. The opportunity centers on improving the movement of capital through the financial system.
How Tokenization Could Free Trapped Capital
Collateral is the cash or securities a firm pledges to secure an obligation. The challenge is not simply owning enough assets: institutions must also be able to deliver eligible collateral to the right counterparty when it is required.
Tokenization represents an asset or financial claim as a digital token. If that token can move between connected systems with a clear legal effect, transferring collateral can involve fewer separate records and reconciliation steps.
Friedman told CNBC that tokenizing securities together with money could make collateral more fluid. Her tens-of-billions estimate describes potential capital efficiency, rather than savings that the industry has already realized.
For a bank, the commercial test is whether those transfers reduce the assets it must leave idle and the work needed to manage them. Tokenization alone does not remove the obligation to post sufficient collateral.
Nasdaq Has Already Tested Tokenized Collateral
Nasdaq has a concrete example behind that argument. On September 14, the company disclosed test collateral trades involving Vanguard and Wellington Management on the Canton Network, a blockchain developed by Digital Asset.
The trades used tokenized money-market fund securities and Nasdaq Calypso, its platform for managing trading, risk and collateral workflows. Nasdaq said the tests covered eligibility checks, margin calls, transfers and reconciliation within the existing Calypso environment.
The fund tokens represented legally enforceable interests in the underlying shares. Agreements between the counterparties were updated to recognize those instruments as acceptable collateral, showing that contractual changes accompanied the technology.
Nasdaq said settlement took place in real time and collateral inventories updated automatically. These were test transactions; they do not establish that tokenized collateral has become standard practice across banks and asset managers.
Connecting Blockchain With Existing Bank Systems
The integration problem also underpins Nasdaq’s March 23 partnership with Talos. The companies announced plans to connect digital-asset infrastructure with Nasdaq Calypso and Trade Surveillance to support tokenized collateral management.
The intended solution brings execution, valuation, risk, collateral and compliance into connected workflows. That matters because a token held in a wallet has limited usefulness to an institution if its existing systems cannot recognize, value or monitor it.
Nasdaq also described surveillance tools for detecting suspicious activity across markets. The goal is to bring digital assets within the operational controls already expected in institutional finance.
Banks are exploring these questions more broadly. As we previously reported, Morgan Stanley’s Digital Asset Lab is testing applications including stablecoins and tokenization before connecting them to its wider business.
Continuous Markets Require Continuous Risk Management
Friedman said moving to 24/7 markets would require institutions to manage risk and collateral continuously, without the downtime traditionally available when exchanges close. She also described Nasdaq digital agents that initially make recommendations within its risk-management platform.
Faster trading therefore creates a wider operating challenge. A firm needs dependable systems for the obligations generated by a transaction, as well as a venue on which to execute it.
The same distinction applies to tokenized stocks. As we reported, OKX and ICE have proposed a venue for continuous trading in tokenized U.S. shares. A proposed platform and an operational market remain different stages of development.
Shareholder Rights Remain Part of the Design
Nasdaq’s separate equity initiative, announced in March, aims to preserve issuer control and shareholder rights while connecting regulated markets with blockchain networks.
The proposed design links blockchain records to an issuer’s official share registry. It also addresses corporate actions, proxy voting and investor engagement, areas where a digital representation must remain connected to the underlying security.
Nasdaq said in that announcement that it expected the program and additional distributed-ledger services to become operational in the first half of 2027. That was its stated timetable, rather than confirmation that all the planned services are available today.
The Savings Depend on Adoption and Controls
The Financial Stability Institute has highlighted both the potential efficiencies and the risks of tokenization. Its August 2025 summary identified limited interoperability, legal uncertainty and operational complexity as constraints on wider adoption.
It also warned about liquidity mismatches: a token may appear easier to trade or redeem than the underlying asset actually is. The choice of settlement money matters too, because stablecoins, bank deposits and central-bank money carry different risks.
Those issues help explain why successful transfers are only one part of the business case. Institutions need to establish who owns the asset, when settlement is final and whether they can obtain cash when obligations fall due.
Friedman’s forecast puts a large potential benefit on the table. Whether banks capture it will depend on connecting systems and legal claims reliably, and then demonstrating that the resulting process uses capital more efficiently.
