Nasdaq applies to trade stock RWA: Will all stocks eventually be tokenized?

Author: Zhang Feng

According to media reports, Nasdaq Inc. is applying to regulators for permission to allow investors to buy and sell tokenized versions of stocks on its globally renowned exchange. This is not just a simple product launch, but a strong signal announcing that a revolution, which has long been brewing beneath the surface, is moving from the margins to the center— the wave of stock tokenization is no longer satisfied with tentative exploration on the fringes, and is beginning to knock powerfully on the doors of traditional exchanges, demanding a historic response.

This event reflects a grand future vision where technology and finance intertwine, shape each other, and accelerate integration. The immense opportunities of the future are deeply rooted in the surging momentum of the two forces: Tech-Fin and Fin-Tech, and their eventual deep integration.

1. Background: The wave of tokenization knocks on the door of traditional exchanges.

The actions of Nasdaq are by no means isolated incidents. They represent a strategic response from traditional finance (TradFi) to the growing challenges and temptations from the world of crypto assets and blockchain. Tokenization - the transformation of rights to real-world assets (RWA) into programmable and efficiently tradable digital tokens on the blockchain - has long surpassed the "proof of concept" stage. From U.S. Treasury bonds and money market funds to real estate and art, the practice of asset tokenization is in full swing. BlackRock's dollar institutional digital liquidity fund (BUIDL) has rapidly developed into the largest tokenized Treasury bond fund in just a few months, serving as strong evidence.

Behind this wave is the fundamental efficiency improvement brought about by blockchain technology: it promises to achieve near real-time clearing and settlement (T+0 or even instant), significantly reducing the cost and complexity of cross-border transactions, achieving automated compliance and asset services through smart contracts, and creating a global liquidity pool that operates 24/7 without interruption. Once these advantages are validated in the fringe markets, their sharpness will inevitably point to the core of the modern financial system - the stock exchanges. Nasdaq, as a long-time proponent of technological innovation, keenly realizes that if it cannot actively incorporate this force into a regulatory framework for guidance and utilization, it may face the risk of being disrupted. Its application is a proactive self-evolution, aimed at transforming the "disruptive innovation" brought about by tokenization into "constructive innovation," defending its core position while ushering in a new era.

2. Deepening: The comprehensive technological transformation of traditional financial institutions has become inevitable.

The actions of Nasdaq are just the tip of the iceberg. They reveal a larger and irreversible trend: the comprehensive and in-depth technological transformation of traditional financial institutions is no longer an "option" but a "necessity." This law is sweeping across the entire financial ecosystem:

Stock Exchanges: Not only Nasdaq, but many exchanges around the world are exploring blockchain technology in hopes of reshaping the entire process of listing, trading, clearing, and settlement. Future exchanges may evolve into a hybrid, multi-asset digital platform that simultaneously handles traditional securities and various asset tokens.

Brokerages and investment banks: They are actively integrating AI-driven advisory services, using big data for precise customer profiling and risk pricing, and exploring the provision of digital asset trading and custody services for clients. Their business model is evolving from "trade executors" to "technology-enabled wealth management platforms."

Trusts and Custodian Banks: This traditionally conservative field is facing the most severe challenges. Traditional asset custody methods cannot meet the needs of digital native assets. Therefore, digital custody solutions—securely storing the private keys for cryptocurrencies and tokenized assets—have become a strategic focus for major custodian banks such as BNY Mellon and State Street.

Insurance and Lending: Models such as "peer-to-peer collateralized lending" and "flash loans" that emerged in DeFi (Decentralized Finance) are not completely applicable to traditional markets, but their underlying logic—automating risk assessment, pricing, and claims processing through algorithms and smart contracts—is compelling traditional insurance and lending institutions to improve efficiency, transparency, and inclusivity.

The underlying driving force of this transformation is the financial industry's unremitting pursuit of higher efficiency, lower costs, better experiences, and stronger risk control. Technology has transformed from a "tool" supporting business into the "core engine" that reconstructs business models.

3. Drivers: Web 3, AI, and Quantum Technology Reshaping the Underlying Logic of Finance

The reshaping of finance by technology is not a linear process, but rather a complex transformation driven collaboratively by cutting-edge technologies such as Web 3, AI (artificial intelligence), and quantum computing. Its far-reaching impact has touched upon asset issuance, trading, and even the definition of value itself.

Web 3 and Blockchain: It has brought about a revolution in Programmable Assets and Composability. Assets are no longer static but can be enriched with smart embedded logic (such as dividend mechanisms, voting rights, and usage rights). Different financial protocols and assets can be freely combined like "LEGO blocks" to create unprecedented financial products and services ("DeFi LEGO"). This fundamentally changes the paradigm of asset issuance and trading, moving from "institutional centralized creation" to "community-driven and algorithm-driven market emergence."

Artificial Intelligence (AI): AI, especially generative AI and reinforcement learning, is unleashing tremendous energy in the financial sector. It can perform large-scale market predictions and high-frequency trading, identify complex fraud patterns in real time, provide highly personalized wealth management solutions, and automate the generation of compliance reports and code. AI is the key brain for processing the massive amounts of data produced by blockchain and future quantum computing, and for extracting value from it.

Quantum Computing: Although it is still in its early stages, its potential power is enough to disrupt the existing financial security foundation. Current encryption algorithms may be vulnerable in the face of quantum computing, which forces the entire digital financial system to proactively explore Post-Quantum Cryptography. At the same time, quantum computing may greatly optimize complex portfolio management and risk modeling.

The convergence of these three technological waves is significantly enhancing the capability of Tech-Fin. Technology companies are increasingly embedding themselves into areas traditionally dominated by financial institutions, even starting to define new asset classes and financial market rules.

The long-term development strategy of Guofu Quantum (00290.HK) is based on the "Ladder Plan" from "The Three-Body Problem," which involves phased acquisitions of high-quality projects, combined with a resource integration strategy called "Nuclear Bomb Acceleration," to gradually build an ecological closed loop of "Quantum + Digital Assets + AI." Each phase of acquisition not only brings a short-term boost to market value but also lays the foundation for subsequent leaps through technological integration and market expansion. Ultimately, the company will transform from a traditional financial player into a globally leading technology-driven investment platform, achieving exponential breakthroughs in market value.

4. Integration: The boundaryless future of technology, finance, and industry deepened by digitalization.

As the digital process deepens, we are moving towards a future where the physical world and the digital world are deeply intertwined. In this scenario, traditional boundaries will become increasingly blurred:

The boundary between physical assets and financial assets is blurred. A building, a piece of artwork, or even a person's future income stream can be precisely measured, divided, and transformed into highly liquid financial assets through tokenization. Conversely, purely digital assets such as digital land and avatar equipment in the virtual world (metaverse) also possess real financial value due to their scarcity and utility.

The deep integration of financial technology and technological finance. The two are essentially two sides of the same coin, ultimately leading to the same destination. Financial technology (Fin-Tech) is the financial industry utilizing technology to enhance itself, with the end goal of becoming a highly technological industry. Technological finance (Tech-Fin) is technology companies infiltrating and reshaping the financial industry, with the end goal of producing mature financial functions within technology platforms. In the end, it will be difficult to distinguish whether a platform is a technology company or a financial company; it will be both, merging into a new composite of "technological finance."

The deep integration of technology, finance, and industry: In the future, manufacturing, logistics, cultural and creative industries, etc., will generally realize tokenization of their assets and processes. Supply chain finance will become incredibly transparent and efficient, with "conditional payments" based on smart contracts being automatically executed. The financing methods for enterprises may evolve from IPOs (Initial Public Offerings) to directly issuing tokens representing their assets or future earnings to global liquidity pools (ITO?). Finance will seamlessly embed into the capillaries of every industrial process, becoming a real-time and precise lubricant for the real economy, just like water, electricity, and coal.

V. Future Landscape: Dominance, Main Line, Main Battleground and Fundamentals

In this grand transformation, we can outline several core dimensions where future opportunities are embedded:

Technology is the Dominator: The source driving force of everything comes from technological innovation. Any leap from quantitative change to qualitative change in foundational technologies such as quantum computing, AI, and blockchain may trigger a chain reaction in finance and even the entire economic system, creating entirely new tracks and business models. Opportunities always lurk near the singularity of technological breakthroughs.

Finance is the Main Thread: The core function of finance as a resource allocation mechanism will not change; it remains the main thread throughout. What changes are its forms of expression and operational efficiency. All technological applications ultimately serve to optimize capital flow, price risk, and create value, which is the essence of finance.

Industry is the main battleground: the integration of technology and finance, its value and ultimate test lies in whether it can truly empower various industries, improving the overall social production efficiency and resource allocation efficiency. The greatest opportunity is to tailor "technology-finance" solutions for specific industries (such as green energy, biomedicine, and supply chain).

User rights are fundamental (The Foundation): No matter how cool the technology is or how innovative the business model may be, it is essential to ensure and enhance the security of users' assets, data privacy, choice, and fairness. Projects that can solve the current user experience challenges in Web 3 (such as complex wallets and mnemonic phrases) and achieve truly "seamless" and secure financial interactions will gain a significant advantage.

Asset efficiency is the lifeline: the core of competition lies in improving the circulation and utilization efficiency of assets. Whoever can provide deeper liquidity, lower trading friction, and richer application scenarios (Utility) can attract value aggregation.

Compliance is systematic, developmental, and deeply integrated with technology (The Framework): Future regulation will not simply be "command and control," but will increasingly rely on RegTech and SupTech, achieving "synchronized compliance" through technological means (such as embedded regulation and real-time audit nodes). Compliance itself will become a technology-driven, dynamically evolving system.

Perhaps we are standing at the starting point of a historic integration.