An interesting shift is happening — U.S. stock markets are about to go night shift.

Recently, Nasdaq submitted documents to U.S. regulators proposing to significantly extend trading hours for stocks and exchange-traded products, from the current approximately 16 hours daily to 23 hours per day from Monday to Friday (with only 1 hour reserved for maintenance). If approved, this change could be implemented in the second half of 2026.

The logic behind this move is quite clear: as the asset tokenization wave advances, more securities will migrate onto the blockchain, and around-the-clock trading becomes a natural progression. The crypto market has already achieved 24/7 trading, attracting substantial funds that require immediate response. Nasdaq openly states that this is not just about competing for order flow, but also about preparing for the future tokenized securities market.

**The apparent benefits are obvious.**

Liquidity and trading volume will continue to rise — the average daily trading volume of U.S. stocks outside traditional hours grew from about 700 million shares in 2021 to over 1.7 billion shares in early 2025. Extended trading hours mean faster reactions to sudden events, and risks like "overnight gaps" can be reduced accordingly.

Additionally, the U.S. stock market will truly become a global continuous market, seamlessly covering different time zones, further strengthening the global siphoning effect.

**But the costs of this change are not trivial.**

Volatility will likely increase. The crypto market trades 168 hours a week, while the U.S. stock market currently operates just over 30 hours, and the Chinese A-shares even less. When measured by trading intensity, a year of crypto trading is equivalent to five to seven years in traditional markets. This is one of the core reasons for the high volatility in crypto. Extending trading hours will only push U.S. market volatility higher.

Liquidity will also become more segmented. Nighttime trading volumes are typically lower, spreads will widen, and trading costs will rise accordingly. During periods of thin liquidity, large funds can more easily manipulate prices — Nasdaq executives have openly acknowledged this.

It’s even less friendly to retail investors. 24/7 trading means constant monitoring, significantly increasing psychological pressure and monitoring burdens. This favors high-frequency trading and algorithmic institutions, raising the barriers substantially.

**Essentially, this is not just simple “progress.”**

Around-the-clock trading increases the complexity and barriers to participation. For ordinary investors, the number of opportunities may not increase, but the demands on cognition, discipline, and trading systems definitely escalate.

This is what the future looks like.