Centralized, closed, and not open on weekends, the New York Stock Exchange is a symbol of everything that Bitcoin was created to destroy, writes The Wall Street Journal.
Nevertheless, the 233-year-old Wall Street giant has quietly and unexpectedly become a major player in the crypto industry.
Risky and legendary
The NYSE's bet on crypto assets is being made during a challenging period for the market, as Bitcoin has experienced its worst performance in the first quarter since 2018. Currently, Bitcoin is trading around $75,000. However, at its peak in October 2025, Bitcoin was valued at $126,273, driven by expectations that Donald Trump's rise to power would usher in a "golden age" for digital assets.
Despite the decline, the NYSE, along with other Wall Street exchanges, remains undeterred. According to Michael Blaugrund, vice president of strategic initiatives at Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the owner of the NYSE, it is likely that blockchain will become a key infrastructure for the exchange's core operations in the future, including trading, clearing, settlement, capital raising, and data dissemination. This idea is also being promoted by ICE founder and CEO Jeffrey Sprecher, according to people close to him.
In January 2015, the NYSE invested in Coinbase when Bitcoin was still a secondary asset trading at around $300, and earned $900 million after selling its stake in 2021.
In March, the NYSE invested in the crypto exchange OKX. As part of the agreement, OKX will provide the exchange with real-time quotes for cryptocurrencies traded on its platform. The NYSE has also announced a partnership with Securitize to create a tokenized securities platform with 24/7 trading and instant settlement, according to the WSJ. This will allow investors to use stablecoins to finance transactions.
"The legendary exchange is undergoing the most ambitious—and probably the most risky—transformation to date, using the distributed ledger technology behind Bitcoin to reinvent the very system that took centuries to build," the WSJ notes.
Comrades in misfortune
The exchange has expanded its investments to the prediction market, a fast-growing segment where users bet on events in various fields, from politics to sports. In October 2025, the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) agreed to invest up to $2 billion in the Polymarket platform, increasing its valuation to $9 billion.
This seemingly incredible deal was made possible in large part due to the similar negative experiences of the heads of the NYSE and Polymarket, the publication reported. On November 13, 2024, FBI agents woke up Polymarket founder Shane Coplan at his Manhattan home and seized his phone as part of an investigation into whether the platform allowed illegal trading for U.S. users.
Jeffrey Sprecher reached out to Coplan after the DOJ closed the case. In an interview with CNBC, cited by the WSJ, he said Coplan “was falsely accused and was searched by the FBI,” adding that he had experienced something similar a few years earlier. “I’m old and bald. He’s young and has hair. I have a closet full of ties. I don’t think he has any. The exchange we’re in now was founded in 1792. And he has the most promising fintech company of 2025," Sprecher said from the NYSE trading floor.