The Dream of a 24/7 Global Stock Market Stumbles on Today’s Blockchain Infrastructure
Crypto News Desk
January 29, 2026
A borderless, round‑the‑clock exchange where a farmer in Nebraska can instantly hedge wheat futures while a pension fund in Tokyo trades Tesla shares, all without intermediaries, has long been touted as the inevitable endpoint of blockchain‑enabled asset tokenization. Yet, experts argue that the underlying technology is not yet fit for the scale and rigor demanded by institutional finance.
Tokenization Has Accelerated, Infrastructure Has Lagged
Over the past few years, real‑world assets—stocks, bonds, commodities and real estate—have been rapidly digitized through tokenization platforms. Projects that issue digital certificates for equities or tokenized real‑world assets have proliferated, attracting interest from banks, hedge funds and venture capitalists.
However, the same enthusiasm that fuels the creation of these tokens is met with a stark reality: the public blockchains that host them struggle to meet the performance standards of traditional exchanges. According to Joshua Sum, head of product at Solayer Labs, the “hard part”—converting tangible assets into tokens—has been solved, but the “soft part” of moving them at market‑grade speed remains a bottleneck.
Three Core Technical Shortcomings
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Throughput Limits
Most layer‑1 blockchains cap transaction processing at a few thousand per second. When a high‑profile token launch can congest the network for hours, scaling to the millions of trades per day that global markets generate becomes unfeasible. -
Latency and Finality
Block times ranging from a few seconds to several minutes, coupled with probabilistic finality, hinder rapid price discovery and make high‑frequency trading (HFT) impractical. The resulting slippage on blockchain‑based venues is markedly higher than on conventional exchanges. - Maximal Extractable Value (MEV)
The ability of bots to reorder, front‑run, or sandwich transactions gives rise to systematic market manipulation. For institutional investors accustomed to regulated and transparent markets, such opaque ordering creates an unacceptable risk profile.
Institutional Reluctance and Retail Risks
The convergence of these issues translates into concrete concerns for both professional and retail participants. Institutions fear that a single large order could be partially executed, delayed, or overtaken by arbitrage bots, potentially leading to substantial financial loss. As a result, many large asset managers remain hesitant to allocate significant capital to blockchain‑based trading infrastructure.
Retail users, who were promised democratized access, face a different dilemma. In an ecosystem where MEV extraction tools are unevenly distributed, everyday traders can be disadvantaged by the same mechanisms that give sophisticated actors an edge, effectively reproducing the insider advantages of legacy finance without its regulatory safeguards.
A Closing Window of Opportunity
Traditional finance is increasingly aware of tokenization’s potential, with several banks piloting digital asset custody and settlement solutions. Yet, each instance of network congestion, failed trade execution, or MEV‑driven front‑run reinforces skepticism about blockchain’s readiness to serve as a primary venue for global securities trading.
What the Industry Needs to Move Forward
Industry insiders argue that incremental upgrades to existing chains will not suffice. The roadmap toward a truly global, 24/7 exchange hinges on a few decisive breakthroughs:
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High‑Throughput, Low‑Latency Networks
Platforms such as Solana have demonstrated the feasibility of processing over 100,000 transactions per second with sub‑second finality. Replicating or surpassing these metrics on a widely adopted, permissionless layer could align blockchain performance with the demands of modern finance. -
Protocol‑Level Fairness
Embedding first‑come‑first‑served transaction ordering into the consensus layer could drastically reduce MEV opportunities, delivering a more predictable execution environment for large orders. -
Atomic Composability Across Execution Layers
Seamless movement of assets and liquidity between different blockchain environments would prevent market fragmentation and enable a unified marketplace experience. - Specialized Execution Layers
Designing dedicated execution modules—compatible with virtual machines like the Solana Virtual Machine—could provide the needed specialization without sacrificing overall network liquidity.
Key Takeaways
| Issue | Impact on Tokenized Markets | Potential Remedy |
|---|---|---|
| Throughput ceiling | Limits daily trade volumes, causing network congestion | Adopt high‑throughput layer‑1 solutions (e.g., Solana) |
| Latency & finality | Hinders price discovery and HFT, leading to slippage | Sub‑second finality mechanisms |
| MEV & front‑running | Creates unfair market conditions, deterring institutional participation | Protocol‑level ordering guarantees |
| Institutional risk tolerance | Prevents large‑scale capital deployment | Reliable execution guarantees and auditability |
| Retail equity | Undermines democratization promises | Fairness built into consensus, transparent governance |
Outlook
The tokenization of real‑world assets remains a multi‑trillion‑dollar opportunity, but its realization will depend on whether blockchain developers can deliver an infrastructure that meets the rigorous standards of global finance. As traditional financial institutions continue to evaluate the technology, the pressure mounts for the crypto ecosystem to evolve beyond incremental fixes toward a fundamentally re‑engineered network architecture.
If the industry manages to bridge the gap—delivering high throughput, low latency, and equitable transaction ordering—a 24/7 global stock market on blockchain could transition from a visionary concept to an operational reality. Until then, the promise of a seamless, borderless exchange remains constrained by the limitations of today’s blockchain foundations.
Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/global-stock-market-blockchain?utm_source=rss_feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=rss_partner_inbound
