What did Ava Labs President Charley Cooper and ICE executive Michael Blaugrund reveal about the New York Stock Exchange’s roughly year-long evaluation of Avalanche—including its technology, economics, integration with existing systems, and the close but non-final relationship bet

Avalanche appears to be a serious candidate, not a selected NYSE production chain. Cooper said NYSE had spent roughly a year assessing Avalanche’s technical performance, cost/economic model, and ability to integrate with the exchange’s existing infrastructure; Blaugrund said ICE was working closely with Ava Labs, but neither indicated that ICE or NYSE had made a final blockchain-selection or commercial-deployment decision. 2

• What the evaluation means: The work is due diligence for a regulated market rather than a commitment to move NYSE onto Avalanche. Avalanche may be one settlement/infrastructure option in a deliberately multi-blockchain design, alongside NYSE’s established Pillar matching technology and conventional market systems. 2

• The proposed NYSE venue: Subject to required regulatory approvals, NYSE plans an alternative trading platform for tokenized U.S.-listed equities and ETFs, combining its matching engine with blockchain-based post-trade processing. Its stated objectives include continuous trading, near-immediate/onchain settlement, fractional shares, and payment or funding with stablecoins/tokenized cash. 24

• “24/7” versus 24-hour weekdays: The commercial ambition has been round-the-clock access, but the more immediate regulatory framework supports the possibility of 24-hour weekday trading—not an assured launch of full weekend trading. The operating hours, asset coverage, liquidity arrangements, and final approvals remain unsettled. 12

• Partners do not settle the Avalanche question: ICE’s MOUs with Securitize and tZERO concern regulated transfer-agent, broker-dealer, and related market-infrastructure functions. Securitize is positioned as a digital transfer agent, while tZERO is a design/infrastructure partner for the tokenized-securities venue; these arrangements can coexist with, rather than imply, selection of a particular blockchain. 35

• SEC relevance: The SEC’s “Innovation Exemption” is temporary, conditional relief for certain distributed-ledger venues trading tokenized NMS stocks. It runs for five years and is designed for controlled, permissioned arrangements with investor-protection and market-integrity conditions; it is not blanket permission for permissionless onchain stock trading or a waiver of all securities-law obligations. 12

• What remains uncertain: The exemption lowers an important regulatory barrier and gives NYSE and peers a path to test the model, but it does not guarantee an NYSE launch, Avalanche adoption, adequate liquidity, or interoperability with legacy clearing and custody. There is also insufficient evidence to predict that major global exchanges will adopt comparable onchain, 24-hour-weekday venues within the next year; that depends on local regulation, market structure, and whether pilots demonstrate reliable liquidity and settlement.