A Columbia Business School adjunct professor and prominent crypto voice has cast doubt on the New York Stock Exchange plan to build a tokenization venue, arguing that the proposal looks more like a marketing concept than a concrete market structure.
In a post on X, Omid Malekan warned that the NYSE tokenization plan looks like “vaporware” rather than a functioning market design, adding that the information released so far omits crucial details for practitioners and regulators.
Malekan Presses for Technical and Legal Specifics
The NYSE, part of Intercontinental Exchange, announced on Monday the development of a digital platform that supports trading and on-chain settlement of tokenized securities, adding that it intends to seek the necessary approvals from regulators. According to the announcement, the new system is meant to offer trading around the clock with instant settlement, funding in stablecoins, and the ability to place orders in dollar amounts rather than only share quantities.
The platform keeps a traditional exchange-style order book at the front end while using blockchain-based systems that can work with several chains for settlement and custody, the NYSE said.
Malekan argues that the outline stops short of the specifics that matter. He notes that the NYSE has not said which chain it will actually use, which virtual machine or programming language will govern the contracts, which stablecoins will be acceptable, or which jurisdictions and investor segments the venue will serve.
He also highlights several questions about whether the tokens will sit in a permissioned, permissionless, or mixed framework and how the economics will work for a profit-seeking group.
Tokenization Clashes With the Legacy Exchange Model
Malekan sets that ambition against what he describes as a deeply entrenched, highly centralized equity market built on delayed settlement and an oligopolistic structure that has historically supported NYSE profits. Tokenization, he says, assumes a very different architecture in which settlement happens on-chain, custody can move into digital wallets, and trading does not need to stop at the end of sessions.
In his view, it is doubtful that a large traditional finance group can preserve the advantages of that legacy model while also fully embracing the disruptive logic of tokenization, adding that major crypto participants have seen similar announcements in past cycles and that they often end in disappointment for those who take corporate promises at face value.
