Nasdaq, home of Coinbase, Strategy stocks, seeks 23-hour trading amid investor demand

• Nasdaq plans to expand stock and exchange-traded product trading to 23 hours a day, five days a week, according to a filing.
• The move follows similar initiatives by the New York Stock Exchange and reflects growing global demand for extended market access.
• Always-on cryptocurrency trading has influenced investor expectations, with Nasdaq acknowledging that many of its clients are already active overnight.

Nasdaq is looking to enable nearly round-the-clock trading, aiming to match the increasingly global nature of financial markets and investor behavior, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

Under the proposal, Nasdaq would expand trading hours for stocks and exchange-traded products (ETPs) from 16 hours to 23 hours per day, five days a week. The new schedule would include a day session from 4 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET, followed by a one-hour break, and then a night session running from 9 p.m. to 4 a.m. ET the following day. The trading week would begin on Sunday at 9 p.m. and close on Friday at 8 p.m., with the existing opening and closing bells at 9:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. remaining unchanged, according to the filing.

Most public crypto companies trade on Nasdaq's exchange, including Coinbase (COIN), Robinhood (HOOD), and Strategy (MSTR), as well as many bitcoin mining companies. Such a move would make those stocks more accessible to traders across the globe.

The proposal comes as there is a growing demand from global investors to trade U.S. stocks beyond the usual trading hours.

"Although trading volume in extended hours trading tends to be considerably lower than it is during regular market hours, Nasdaq has observed a growing interest in trading during overnight hours, particular among investors located in Asia and other foreign jurisdictions where business hours do not coincide, fully or otherwise, with U.S. regular market hours," Nasdaq said in the filing.

Currently, U.S. stock markets operate from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET, with limited pre- and post-market sessions. In contrast, cryptocurrencies trade 24/7, a dynamic that may have reshaped expectations among investors and prompted exchanges to push towards more around-the-clock trading platforms.

"[Investors] are also increasingly utilizing trading platforms that provide access to markets for digital assets, including cryptocurrencies, tokenized assets, and tokenized securities, on a 24/7 basis," according to the filing.

This has been a trending topic for traditional exchanges for a while.

For example, both Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) have offered clues that extended hours were under consideration. Nasdaq’s Giang Bui, head of U.S. equities and exchange-traded products, said in March that this shift is “where the markets are moving.” She also noted that Nasdaq had already been in discussions with regulators at the time, while the NYSE has since received SEC approval for its own after-hours expansion.

Trades executed between 9 p.m. and midnight during the night session will count toward the following calendar day, Nasdaq said. The new structure would enable broader access to U.S. markets across multiple time zones and could appeal to institutional and retail traders active in global or cryptocurrency markets.

"Nasdaq submits its proposal to extend its trading hours to compete for order flow from these investors, as well as to position itself favorably in the future to participate in markets that trade digital assets," the exchange said.

Reuters was first to report Nasdaq's intention to file for extended trading on Monday.

UPDATE (Dec. 15, 22:47 UTC): Updates story throughout to say Nasdaq has filed with the SEC; adds quotes and additional details from the filing.

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