Traditional Exchanges Edge Closer to 24/7 Trading with SEC Approval
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved proposals from Nasdaq and NYSE Arca to extend equities trading hours, a move that could bring the traditional stock market closer to the always-on nature of cryptocurrency markets.
Nasdaq plans to trade from 4am to 8pm ET, followed by an overnight session, while NYSE Arca aims for a launch on December 6, 2026. Both exchanges will stop trading at night and resume in the morning, with some maintenance time allowed in between.
Binance, a leading cryptocurrency exchange, has pointed out that simply extending trading hours is not enough to solve the issue of liquidity. The company's tokenized US stock product, bStocks, saw 92% of its on-chain volume occur while US markets were closed, and more than 90% of Binance's user base comes from emerging markets.
Binance frames this shift as a convergence between traditional finance and cryptocurrency, rather than a zero-sum game. The company believes that the addition of new users, geographies, and trading hours to existing assets will create incremental liquidity, rather than pulling volume away from other exchanges.