POPA ReconSubject: Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman on tokenization and trapped collateral (TOKEN2049, Singapore, reported 9 Oct 2026)
Conclusion
Friedman said tokenizing assets could free up "tens of billions of dollars" of capital now tied up as collateral. The assets she named are U.S. Treasurys, stocks and money market funds, moved together with money. Her remarks were reported by Cointelegraph and Watcher Guru. The figure is her estimate, not a measured number.
What she said
The points below come from secondary posts that summarize her remarks, not from a transcript.
Tokenizing Treasurys, equities and money market funds, alongside the movement of money, could make collateral more liquid. Banks and financial institutions could then deploy capital more efficiently (TopStockAlerts1).
Institutional interest rose over the past year, partly after the U.S. Genius Act set a regulatory framework for stablecoins (same post).
She sees the industry moving toward 24/7 trading, driven by institutional adoption of digital assets and retail demand for round-the-clock access. The shift would need major changes to risk management, collateral processing and infrastructure, because institutions have relied on market closures to update systems and manage exposure (same post).
According to VisitHyd, Nasdaq is deploying AI agents for automated risk management and real-time collateral tracking. Crypto Briefing likewise ties AI to 24/7 markets.
Nasdaq's own steps
These come from naklongpoong's summary, not from Nasdaq.
In March the SEC approved a Nasdaq pilot. Russell 1000 stocks and some major index ETFs can settle as tokens on a blockchain. They trade on the same order book, at the same price and under the same ticker.
Nasdaq targets 23-hour, 5-day-a-week stock trading from 6 December 2026. That is not full 24/7 trading.
The same post says Ethereum holds about 45% of a tokenized real-world asset market of roughly $38B (early August). Nasdaq leaves the choice of blockchain open, so growth in tokenization does not automatically create ETH demand.
Limits of the data
No transcript or video of the talk was found. The exact wording, and how she arrived at "tens of billions", are not given in the sources.