Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, is developing an alternative trading system to bring 24/7 trading on chain, and Avalanche is emerging as a leading candidate for the platform. Avalanche’s official account shared the news on September 17, quoting ICE/NYSE executive Michael Blaugrund as saying the network “checks a lot of those boxes” for the exchange group as it evaluates different blockchains, according to the post.
A Public Signal From NYSE’s Parent
“As we’ve evaluated different platforms, Avalanche checks a lot of those boxes for us, so we’re very engaged with the team,” Blaugrund said in the statement reposted by Avalanche. The comment is the clearest public signal yet that ICE, which operates the NYSE, is moving toward round-the-clock on-chain trading through an ATS that remains in development. An alternative trading system is a regulated venue that matches buyers and sellers without operating as a full national securities exchange, which means it can take a different path through approval than a traditional listing venue.
Building on ICE’s On-Chain Ambitions
The plan extends work the exchange group has been assembling over the past year. In August, ICE agreed to partner with tZERO on the settlement infrastructure for its planned NYSE-affiliated tokenized securities platform, a step the companies called foundational for on-chain settlement of tokenized securities. ICE has also invested in the crypto exchange OKX, signaling a broader push to combine traditional market structure with digital-asset rails rather than building everything in-house.
Avalanche’s Institutional Momentum
Avalanche has courted exactly this kind of institutional use case. Brokerage giant Charles Schwab has separately said it will add spot trading for Avalanche and other major crypto assets, and Avalanche pitches its high-throughput, subnetwork-based architecture as a fit for regulated financial systems that need both speed and control. The announcement does not amount to a signed deal, however. ICE has not set a launch date for the ATS, and the exchange group must still navigate regulatory approval before any round-the-clock on-chain venue goes live.
Why 24/7 On-Chain Trading Matters
U.S. equity markets currently operate on fixed weekday sessions, and the move to continuous on-chain trading would bring stocks closer to the always-open model that crypto traders already know. A 24/7 ATS built on Avalanche would let orders settle and clear without the overnight pauses that define legacy exchanges, though ICE has not detailed how it would handle market oversight or investor protections on such a venue. For now, the public naming of Avalanche is a signal of direction rather than a committed deployment.
