Ava Labs Says NYSE Has Spent a Year Testing Avalanche for Tokenization Push

NYSE's Quiet Year of Testing Avalanche

Ava Labs President Charley Cooper has revealed that the New York Stock Exchange has spent the past year testing **Avalanche (AVAX)** technology and working to integrate it with the exchange's systems.

Speaking at the Avalanche Summit in New York on Thursday, Cooper told The Block's Gareth Jenkinson that the NYSE had pressed Ava Labs on the project's economics as well as its technology. The exchange wanted to establish whether the company understood its wider business needs.

Cooper described a close working relationship with NYSE parent ICE, while stopping short of confirming that the exchange had selected Avalanche.

"I leave it to the NYSE guys to talk publicly about where they are in the whole process," he said.

ICE Engagement and Onchain Plans

ICE's Head of Strategic Initiatives Michael Blaugrund had earlier joined Cooper onstage at the summit, where the two discussed the exchange operator's onchain plans.

During that session, Blaugrund said the firm was very engaged with the Avalanche team as it evaluates blockchain platforms.

"Avalanche checks a lot of those boxes for us," Blaugrund said.

NYSE's Tokenized-Securities Ambitions

The NYSE announced in January that it was developing a platform for the trading and onchain settlement of tokenized U.S. equities and exchange-traded funds, subject to regulatory approval.

Its proposed system combines the exchange's Pillar matching engine with blockchain-based post-trade infrastructure. The design is intended to support multiple blockchains for settlement and custody.

In August, ICE agreed to work with tZERO on infrastructure for tokenized securities markets, naming tZERO as a design partner for the planned NYSE-affiliated platform.

However, the exchange operator has yet to name a blockchain for the platform.

The Race Toward 24-Hour Trading

Cooper expects some venues to begin offering 24-hour weekday trading within a year.

"Will that be the mainstream exchanges? The largest in the world?

The LSEs, the NYSEs, the CMEs? I don't know about that," he said.

He noted that the SEC released an innovation exemption on Thursday that now allows certain onchain trading of tokenized stocks.

"There are a lot of smaller venues that are making a very compelling case to the world to put liquidity on them," Cooper said.

Coinasity's Take

Ava Labs' disclosure paints a picture of a tier-one exchange conducting quiet due diligence rather than a done deal. The NYSE's yearlong probe of Avalanche signals that major market infrastructure players are taking blockchain settlement seriously.

Yet the absence of a named blockchain for the NYSE platform keeps the outcome open. The SEC's new innovation exemption could accelerate smaller venues' push into 24-hour onchain equity trading, pressuring mainstream exchanges to move faster. Avalanche's enterprise-grade positioning may give it an edge, but tZERO's design partnership and multi-chain support suggest a competitive landscape ahead.