Is Crypto Eating Nasdaq’s Lunch?

Why 23/5 Trading May Be the Beginning of the End of the Traditional Trading Day

By Larry M. Jacobson, Ed.D., MBA

For as long as most of us have been investing, the opening and closing bells have defined the U.S. stock market. At 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time, the market opens. At 4:00 p.m., it closes. Premarket and after-hours trading stretched those boundaries, but the traditional trading day remained firmly planted in investors’ minds.

That changes December 6, 2026, when Nasdaq is scheduled to introduce an overnight session from 9:00 p.m. until 4:00 a.m. ET. Combined with its existing sessions, Nasdaq will effectively operate 23 hours a day, five days a week.

My first reaction was not simply, “Nasdaq is extending its hours.” My question was different: Is the digital asset market beginning to eat Nasdaq’s lunch?

I don’t mean investors are abandoning stocks for Bitcoin. The more interesting story is that digital assets have challenged some basic assumptions about how a modern financial market should operate. Crypto trades around the clock, crosses geographic boundaries and does not wait for an opening bell. Whether you love digital assets, hate them or remain skeptical, it is difficult to ignore their impact on what investors now expect from a marketplace.

Crypto Changed the Clock

Bitcoin does not know it is Saturday. Ethereum does not close for Thanksgiving. A trader in Singapore does not have to wait for New York to wake up. The market is simply there—24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Once investors become accustomed to an always-available market, the idea that one of the world’s most technologically sophisticated financial markets needs to shut down every afternoon starts to feel dated. News breaks after 4:00 p.m. Geopolitical events occur overnight. Asian and European markets move while U.S. exchanges are closed.

Digital assets demonstrated another model, and Nasdaq has acknowledged that cryptocurrency markets and 24/7 accessibility are helping change investor expectations. Its regulatory filings also point to international investors increasingly using overnight systems and platforms offering cryptocurrencies, tokenized assets and tokenized securities around the clock.

That tells us this is not simply about convenience. It is about competition for order flow. Capital moves toward liquidity, access, efficiency and opportunity. For years, digital assets offered something traditional equity markets could not fully offer: time. Nasdaq is now taking away much of that advantage.

First PDT. Now the Trading Clock.

This becomes even more interesting when connected with another market-structure change I wrote about earlier this year: the replacement of the traditional Pattern Day Trader framework.

For years, traders classified as Pattern Day Traders generally needed at least $25,000 of account equity to continue actively day trading in a margin account. FINRA’s new framework replaces that approach with intraday margin requirements focused more directly on actual risk.

At first glance, PDT reform and 23/5 trading appear unrelated. I think they have quite a bit in common.

The old PDT framework restricted how often certain investors could participate. The traditional trading day restricts when investors can participate. Both barriers are being dismantled, and technology is the common denominator. We are moving away from fixed clocks and thresholds toward real-time access and real-time measurement of risk.

Then Comes Tokenization

If Nasdaq were only expanding trading hours, this could be viewed as another evolution in electronic trading. But Nasdaq and other major financial institutions are also exploring tokenized securities and how traditional infrastructure can interact with digital-market infrastructure.

Step back and look at the direction: PDT modernization, 23/5 equity trading, tokenized securities, faster collateral movement and increasingly real-time risk management.

These developments are not necessarily pieces of one coordinated plan. But they are moving in the same direction—toward markets that are more continuous, global and digital.

When Will Your Broker Catch Up?

There is another important piece investors need to understand. Nasdaq opening for 23 hours does not automatically mean every brokerage account will suddenly offer the same access on December 6.

Some brokers are already ahead of the change. Schwab offers 24/5 trading through thinkorswim in more than 1,300 stocks and ETFs. Interactive Brokers offers overnight access to thousands of U.S. securities, and E*TRADE has expanded into overnight trading for eligible securities. Other firms remain more limited.

That means December 6 should be viewed as a starting line, not a finish line. Brokers still have to address order routing, market data, clearing, risk controls and how orders behave across sessions. I would expect adoption to occur in stages, with highly liquid stocks and ETFs coming first at some firms.

Then competitive pressure takes over. If Broker A lets an investor react to an Nvidia announcement at 11:00 p.m. while Broker B says wait until morning, trading hours become a reason to choose one brokerage over another.

Nasdaq is opening the market. The next question is how quickly the brokers open the door.

Access Is Not Liquidity

There is also an important caution. More access does not automatically mean better trading. Overnight markets can have lower volume, wider bid-ask spreads, fewer participants and greater volatility.

A stock being available at 2:00 a.m. does not mean 2:00 a.m. is a good time to trade it. Good traders do not trade simply because a market is open. They trade when conditions support the strategy.

So, Is Crypto Eating Nasdaq’s Lunch?

Not exactly. I think something more interesting is happening.

Digital assets are forcing traditional markets to reconsider what a modern financial market should look like. Crypto did not invent electronic trading or global markets. What it demonstrated on a massive scale was that investors would participate in a marketplace that never closes.

PDT reform addresses one barrier: How often can I trade? Nasdaq’s 23/5 move addresses another: When can I trade? Tokenization raises an even larger question: How will securities eventually be owned, transferred and settled?

These are different developments, but I believe they are chapters in the same story. The opening bell is not going away. Neither is the closing bell, at least not yet.

What This Means for Traders

At Trading Academy, our responsibility is to help traders understand how the markets are changing, not simply react to those changes after they occur. And what is happening here reaches well beyond stocks and crypto. As financial markets become more connected and increasingly trade around the clock, the impact will ultimately be felt across futures, forex, bonds and other asset classes.

That is one of the reasons understanding digital assets has become increasingly important. It is not about suggesting that every trader needs to trade crypto. It is about recognizing how digital markets are influencing the broader financial system and understanding both the opportunities and the risks that come with that evolution.

For traders, I think the takeaway is fairly simple. The markets are changing, and the way we access those markets is changing with them. Our job is to understand those changes, determine what they mean for the strategies we trade, and decide where the opportunities make sense.

So, is crypto really eating Nasdaq’s lunch? Maybe not. But it certainly appears to be changing the menu. And if the menu is changing, we should probably understand what is being served before we put our capital on the table.