Cuomo Says Stocks Could Soon Trade Around the Clock
Andrew Cuomo says turning U.S. stocks into blockchain tokens would bring 'radical change' to markets. The comments were published by The Wall Street Journal on Oct. 9, 2026, making the former New York governor the public face of a plan to move stock trading onto blockchain, a shared computer ledger that tracks who owns what.
The plan comes from OKXICE, a joint business between OKX, described as a China-founded crypto company, and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE). OKXICE has asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for permission to launch a tokenized trading platform, according to Reuters on Oct. 5. The request covers day-and-night trading in 60 U.S. stocks, CoinDesk reported, using the SEC's innovation exemption, a special rule that lets firms test new ideas, to offer 24/7 trading.
Cuomo joined OKXICE as co-chairman. He has advised OKX on U.S. strategy and regulation since 2023, work that started before this joint business and now puts a former state leader inside a federal market filing.
In support of the idea, Cuomo said "blockchain, liquidity pools and smart contracts are a more efficient way to trade stocks," as reported by Yahoo Finance on Oct. 4. Think of a tokenized stock like a digital claim ticket for a real share, with computer programs handling the swap. The goal is nonstop trading. OKX and ICE plan 24/7 trading for tokenized U.S. stocks, with no set open or close as regular stock trading still has.
The broader context here is who is behind the request. A crypto firm teamed with a longtime exchange owner changes the talk with regulators. It is not an overseas token copy seeking U.S. users. It is a U.S. filing asking for special permission to trade U.S. listed stocks in token form inside the country. Size matters. Sixty stocks is a small test group, big enough to check prices and company payouts across industries, small enough to limit problems with oversight and settling trades.
Looking at what this means for how markets work, nonstop trading makes the closing bell less central but spreads buyers and sellers thin. The open questions are whether prices stay steady overnight, how many buyers show up when most traders sleep, who truly holds the real share, how dividends, splits and votes are handled, and how mistakes are fixed when the blockchain record, not bank books, decides a trade is final.
In my view, the claim of better efficiency is only an idea until real trading results can be measured. Fewer paperwork steps does not always mean better prices or easier large trades. Tokenization can cut back-office work and let settlement follow set rules. It can also split trading across places with different speeds, fees and dealer duties. For workers who trade stocks and the companies that issue them, the test will be whether the 24/7 token price matches the main market price, who takes the risk overnight, and whether the special permission still protects ordinary investors on fair prices, clear information and cheating. Radical change, if it comes, will appear in those numbers first, not in launch talk.
