The US Securities and Exchange Commission will bring together senior figures from Wall Street and the digital-asset industry on 17 September to examine the risks and benefits of round-the-clock trading in American markets.
The public roundtable will consider whether traditional finance, including US equities, could operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The SEC announced the event last July and revealed its agenda and list of speakers on Tuesday.
SEC Chair Paul Atkins will open proceedings alongside Jamie Selway, Director of the SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets. The discussions will focus on how continuous trading could be introduced while maintaining investor and customer protections.
The event will feature representatives from many of the largest organisations in US financial markets. The first panel includes participants from Robinhood, NYSE, BlackRock, Virtu Financial, Cboe, BNY Pershing, UBS, FINRA and Bruce Markets.
Jane Street, State Street and Samsung are due to appear on the second panel. Other major names taking part include Charles Schwab, Nasdaq, Interactive Brokers, DTCC, Exegy and MEMX.
The third panel will feature representatives from OTC Markets Group, BNP Paribas, 24X, Invesco, Citadel Securities, Drivewealth, Blue Ocean, Citi and ModernIR.
Of the 27 traditional finance companies listed for the roundtable, 18 have direct links to cryptocurrency, digital assets or blockchain technology.
The SEC’s interest in continuous trading comes as traditional financial assets, including stocks and commodities, are increasingly being tokenised on blockchain networks. Those tokenised assets are represented by crypto assets that can already be traded 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Atkins said in July that he welcomed the prospect of US equity markets moving closer to the model used by markets that operate continuously.
“With the expansion to overnight trading, I’m excited at the prospect of U.S. equity markets aligning with those markets that already trade continuously and look forward to balancing round-the-clock trading with all-important investor and customer protections,” Atkins explained at the time.
The SEC’s webcast is expected to attract close attention from Wall Street, but executives and observers from the cryptocurrency sector will also be watching. The debate is likely to include the risks associated with trading overnight, when liquidity can be limited and market conditions can change sharply.
Outside normal Wall Street hours, order books are thinner. Bid-offer spreads can widen, while market depth may reduce significantly or disappear altogether. That can make it harder for investors to buy or sell assets at predictable prices.
Participants in cryptocurrency markets are familiar with sudden movements during the night and sharp rises or falls over weekends. Traditional finance investors are less accustomed to those conditions, although financial firms stand to gain additional fee income if trading is expanded across the entire week.
Crypto markets, and indicators such as Bitcoin’s price movements, can also provide an early signal of developments in the wider economy before Wall Street opens. If traditional financial assets begin trading continuously, their prices could similarly become an early barometer of future events.
Reports also say the SEC is considering updates to its custody rules, although further details were not provided.
