Nasdaq President Tal Cohen, speaking at Consensus Miami 2026, described the SEC's posture as "much more constructive," contrasting the current regulatory gray zone with the prior "no-fly zone" that blocked experimentation with tokenization and digital market infrastructure. Nasdaq secured SEC approval in March to trial tokenized stock trading, allowing eligible participants to transact securities in traditional or blockchain form on a single platform. Cohen outlined Nasdaq's strategy to converge traditional financial rails with digital asset systems through investment in always-on market infrastructure, tokenization, and AI, with tokenization cited as improving asset mobility, financing, and issuer-level shareholder visibility. Crypto ETFs are accelerating institutional inflows by fitting into existing financial infrastructure, driving standardization and globalization of access across markets.