Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman, speaking at the TOKEN2049 conference on 9 October 2026, stated that tokenizing collateral assets and money has the potential to free tens of billions in trapped capital. Friedman described tokenization as a structural development for blockchain adoption rather than a near-term market catalyst. The remarks were reported by Finnhub.
Friedman's comments referenced Nasdaq's December extended-hours trading pilot and related settlement mechanisms, which are intended to test how traditional assets can be integrated onto public blockchains. Nasdaq — listed as NDAQ on the Nasdaq exchange — is directly involved in this pilot as the operator of the infrastructure under development.
Ethereum (ETH) was identified in the event data as the public blockchain network positioned to process tokenized asset volume if the Nasdaq settlement pilot and similar institutional initiatives route activity through its infrastructure. The concrete connection is the architecture of the pilot itself, which involves public blockchain settlement.
No official regulatory response to Friedman's TOKEN2049 remarks was reported in the cluster. The commentary follows a broader pattern of institutional engagement with tokenization, with Fidelity executives also speaking at TOKEN2049 on 8 October 2026 about the structural shift toward on-chain systems, though that represents a separate thread.
Sources: investinglive.com, CoinTelegraph, Bloomberg Markets