The New York Stock Exchange has spent roughly a year testing Avalanche technology and working with Ava Labs on integration with exchange systems, Ava Labs President Charley Cooper said on September 18.
Cooper said the work covered technical performance as well as project economics.
That disclosure sheds light on the blockchain platforms under assessment for NYSE’s tokenized-securities ambitions. ICE executive Michael Blaugrund said the company was “very engaged” with Avalanche during the evaluation, but neither ICE nor NYSE has named an infrastructure provider, so the testing does not establish that Avalanche has been selected.
Avalanche evaluation has covered technology and project economics
The Block reported that Ava Labs President Charley Cooper said NYSE had spent roughly a year testing Avalanche and working with Ava Labs to connect it to exchange systems.
Cooper said the evaluation covered Avalanche’s technical performance and the project’s economics. The report does not specify which functions were tested, the commercial terms or a timetable for an infrastructure decision.
ICE executive Michael Blaugrund said the company was “very engaged” with Avalanche while evaluating blockchain platforms. ICE and NYSE have not named Avalanche as the selected infrastructure provider; the disclosure also does not establish whether other blockchain options are being assessed or how any eventual ledger choice would relate to matching, settlement and custody-related functions. The testing described is not a production deployment.
NYSE’s platform pairs Pillar matching with blockchain settlement
ICE said on January 19 that NYSE was developing a platform for trading and on-chain settlement of tokenized securities, subject to regulatory approval. The plan calls for 24/7 trading capabilities and could include tokenized collateral, according to ICE’s announcement.
An official NYSE presentation describes the operating model: Pillar would handle matching, while blockchain would provide the settlement layer and stablecoins would fund trading.
Against that design, ICE has evaluated Avalanche as one of the blockchain technologies under consideration. ICE and NYSE have not said Avalanche will underpin the platform, however, and the public proposal remains contingent on regulatory approval—not simply on technical testing. The 24/7 feature would make the tokenized market potentially available beyond conventional equities-trading hours.
tZERO and DTC conditions define the implementation path
NYSE’s tokenization initiative also has a separate partner arrangement for specific market infrastructure. On August 31, ICE and tZERO announced a memorandum of understanding under which tZERO would serve as a design partner for digital transfer-agent and broker-dealer infrastructure supporting ICE’s forthcoming NYSE-affiliated tokenized-securities platform.
By addressing transfer-agent and broker-dealer functions, the ICE-tZERO announcement illustrates that the proposed market involves multiple infrastructure layers and counterparties beyond whichever technology supports blockchain settlement; it does not identify tZERO as a blockchain provider.
NYSE‘s April rule filing set out a potential initial universe of securities for tokenized trading. It proposed allowing eligible securities, including Russell 1000 stocks and major-index ETFs, to trade in tokenized form alongside their traditional versions, with the same rights and privileges.
Those plans remain conditional on Depository Trust Company infrastructure and regulatory requirements. The NYSE rule filing therefore sets a broader implementation path than the Avalanche evaluation alone: eligible products, market infrastructure and regulatory conditions would all need to align before tokenized securities could trade under the proposal.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
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