According to Fortune, the 234-year-old New York Stock Exchange made a major announcement last week about putting thousands of stocks on the blockchain. Columbia Business School professor Omid Malekan, who teaches blockchain, immediately called the plan “smoke and mirrors” on Fortune’s Crypto Playbook vodcast. He criticized the press release for being “very high on hype and very short on details,” noting it lacked technical specs and didn’t even name which blockchain would be used. Malekan also found it worrying that the plan seemed designed to include all of the NYSE’s current business partners, some with direct financial ties to the exchange. He likened the move to AT&T’s failed early internet strategy, suggesting the NYSE is facing a classic innovator’s dilemma.
The Innovator’s Dilemma In Stone
Here’s the thing about blockchain: its whole promise is cutting out the middleman. It’s about direct, instant, transparent transactions. So when the NYSE announces a blockchain plan that’s explicitly meant to preserve all its existing partners—the transfer agents, the settlement houses, the whole Wall Street auxiliary crew—you have to ask a question. Is this a real technological shift, or just a fancy coat of paint on the same old building?
Malekan’s comparison to AT&T in the 90s is painfully apt. Big, entrenched institutions see a disruptive wave coming and try to adopt it… but only in a way that protects their legacy revenue streams. They end up building a neutered version of the future that’s hamstrung from the start. And that’s when the real disruptors, the ones with nothing to lose, eat their lunch. Google didn’t come from the telecom world. Facebook didn’t come from newspapers.
Meanwhile, The Real Players Are Moving
And that’s exactly what’s happening here. While the NYSE is making vague announcements, companies like Securitize and SuperState, and big platforms like Robinhood and Kraken, are actually building and launching tokenized stock products right now. They’re not worrying about protecting a 200-year-old ecosystem. They’re just building the new one.
This doesn’t mean the NYSE is going to vanish overnight. It’s too big, too venerable. As Malekan notes, moving the entire stock market is a decades-long project, not a weekend upgrade. But it does mean they’ll have a brutally hard time keeping up. They’re trying to run a marathon while carrying all their old baggage, racing against startups that are traveling light.
Why The Hype, Then?
So why even make the announcement? Probably for the exact reason Malekan suspects: publicity. The crypto and blockchain narrative is powerful. It signals innovation, even if the substance isn’t there yet. For a 234-year-old institution, that signal might be valuable all by itself. It tells investors and the world, “Hey, we’re not a dinosaur.” Even if, behind the scenes, they’re still figuring out how to walk the walk.
You can catch Malekan’s full, skeptical take on the Spotify, Apple, and YouTube versions of Fortune’s Crypto Playbook. The bottom line? When a legacy giant announces a blockchain revolution, maybe wait for the technical whitepaper before you get too excited. The proof, as always, will be in the code.
