The century-old exchange on Wall Street in Manhattan finally can't hold back anymore.

The NYSE recently announced plans to develop a tokenized securities platform, with the core selling point being four words: 24/7 trading. This is not simply extending trading hours, but fundamentally breaking the trading system that has been in place since 1985—upgrading from a fixed 6.5-hour window to continuous 7×24 hours.

Sounds a bit crazy, right? But a closer look at their plan reveals that this is more profound than it appears on the surface.

**From Under the Paulownia Tree to Blockchain**

In 1792, when brokers signed agreements under the paulownia tree, trading hours depended entirely on weather and mood. Later, the system evolved through the removal of Saturday trading in 1952, and then to the 6.5-hour system locked in 1985—an industrialization process of traditional finance. Now, using blockchain to overturn all this, the NYSE is truly going all out.

They plan to support on-chain trading of US stocks and ETFs, along with fractional share trading, stablecoin settlement, and instant delivery. The last two features essentially target the weaknesses of traditional settlement—namely, the T+2 settlement system that has long needed an upgrade.

**The Real Turning Point**

This move can be seen as a signal to the industry. Nasdaq submitted a similar application last year, and now the NYSE is following suit, indicating that traditional financial giants have already seen the trend clearly—either actively embrace on-chain assets or face marginalization.

Compared to the traditional stock market with an annual trading volume exceeding one hundred trillion dollars, and the currently exploratory RWA projects, the scale is simply not in the same league. Once these two worlds connect, that will truly be a market explosion.