Exchanges: Digital Rails, Traditional Trust; Implications of the Next Market Structure Stack

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Exchanges: Digital Rails, Traditional Trust; Implications of the Next Market Structure Stack

Global FoundationM

Executive Summary

Tokenization is unlikely to displace incumbent exchanges and market infrastructure

providers in the near term. We view tokenization as an upgrade of the market

infrastructure stack to digital rails — effectively a new operating model for capital

markets in which ownership, collateral, settlement, and asset servicing can be represented

and coordinated through programmable ledgers. In practice, it is less about putting assets

on blockchain and more about re-architecting market plumbing, in terms of how cash and

collateral move, how ownership is recorded, how settlement occurs, how corporate

actions are processed, and how different venues, custodians, clearinghouses, and ledgers

interoperate.

In our view, tokenization could reshape where economics accrue across the value chain

over time, creating both new revenue opportunities and new competitive pressures.

While incumbent exchanges remain advantaged in liquidity, clearing, regulation, and trust,

parts of the value chain may become more contestable as digital-native platforms,

fintechs, and alternative trading networks compete for distribution, collateral flows,

customer relationships, and post-trade activity.

The most immediate impact is likely to emerge in collateral mobility, funding,

settlement, and post-trade workflows, where tokenized cash and assets can reduce

friction around margin movement, reconciliation, and market operating hours —

extending markets toward more continuous (potentially 24/7) trading. Recent activity in

prediction markets and US-regulated crypto perpetual futures reinforces that the debate