NYSE CPO Jon Herrick says blockchain needs to be plugged into existing rails, such as central clearing, as ICE’s OKX deal and SEC move on tokenized stocks redraw the market structure.
Summary
- NYSE Chief Product Officer Jon Herrick said at the New York Digital Assets Summit on March 26 that the exchange’s strategy focuses on blockchain’s “interoperability” with existing market infrastructure, rather than its wholesale replacement.
- Herrick emphasized that legacy mechanisms such as central clearing retain irreplaceable value for risk management and predicted that the line between traditional and tokenized assets could disappear within the next decade.
- The comments come weeks after NYSE parent Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) made a strategic investment in crypto exchange OKX at a $25 billion valuation, with plans to offer NYSE tokenized shares to OKX’s 120 million users.
NYSE Chief Product Officer Jon Herrick told the audience at the New York Digital Assets Summit on March 26 that the world’s largest exchange has no plans to tear down its existing market infrastructure to make way for blockchain – it plans to connect the two. According to CoinDesk, Herrick said the NYSE is pursuing interoperability and exploring the adoption of tokenized assets within the current system, including real-time or near-real-time settlement and extended trading hours.
The position is a meaningful signal. NYSE is the most systemically important stock exchange in the world, and Herrick’s framing – blockchain layered on top of existing rails, not in place of them – reflects how the exchange deals with the practical and regulatory constraints of one of the most tightly controlled sectors in the financial world. He noted that existing mechanisms such as central clearing still have irreplaceable value for risk management and should be preserved even as exchanges move deeper into tokenization. As previously reported by crypto.news, the NYSE is already building a 24/7 blockchain-based trading platform for tokenized stocks and ETFs, pending SEC approval. The platform is designed to combine the NYSE’s Pillar order matching engine with blockchain-based post-trade settlement funded by stablecoins.
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Herrick predicted that the line between traditional and tokenized assets could gradually blur over the next decade – a timeline that aligns with where institutional momentum is visibly heading. Morgan Stanley, as detailed in a previous crypto.news story, plans to enable tokenized stock settlement on its internal alternative trading system in the second half of 2026, while Nasdaq has already filed with the SEC to support tokenized stocks on its public exchange.
ICE doubles down on OKX investment
The strategic backdrop to Herrick’s comments is significant. Earlier this month, ICE – the parent company of NYSE – made a strategic investment in OKX, valuing the crypto exchange at $25 billion and securing a board seat, as detailed in a previous crypto.news story. Under the partnership, OKX’s 120 million users would gain access to ICE’s U.S. futures markets and tokenized stocks on the NYSE, subject to regulatory approval. “Our strategic relationship with OKX will expand global retail access to ICE’s premier regulated markets and accelerate our plans to offer on-chain infrastructure and tokenized assets to U.S. investors,” said Jeffrey C. Sprecher, chairman and CEO of ICE, at the time of the announcement.
A market structure that is being redesigned
The tokenized stock market reached a market cap of roughly $800 million and monthly volume of $1.8 billion in early 2026, which is still nascent by Wall Street standards but growing rapidly. The regulatory environment has also changed, with the SEC granting the DTCC a three-year period in late 2025 to take custody of tokenized securities, effectively paving the way for broker-dealers to connect to on-chain settlement without abandoning the existing market structure.
Herrick’s interoperability philosophy – bridging old and new rather than replacing one with the other – could prove to be the dominant model for how legacy exchanges will absorb blockchain over the next decade.
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