Risky and legendary
The NYSE’s bet on crypto assets comes at a difficult time for the market, with bitcoin posting its worst first-quarter performance since 2018. It’s currently trading around $75,000. At the peak, in October 2025, amid expectations that Donald Trump’s rise to power would usher in a “golden age” of digital assets, bitcoin was valued at $126,273, writes frankmedia.ru.
However, the weakening of bitcoin NYSE, as well as other Wall Street exchanges, did not frighten. Michael Blaugrund, vice president of strategic initiatives at Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the owner of the NYSE, told the WSJ that it is likely that in the future blockchain will become a key infrastructure for the exchange’s core operations – including trading, clearing, settlement, capital raising and data distribution. This idea is also being promoted by ICE founder and CEO Jeffrey Sprecher, people from his inner circle told the newspaper.
The NYSE invested in Coinbase in January 2015, when bitcoin was still a minor asset trading at around $300, and made $900 million after selling its stake in 2021.
In March, the NYSE invested in cryptocurrency exchange OKX. As part of the agreement, OKX will provide the exchange with access to real-time quotes for cryptocurrencies traded on its platform. The NYSE also announced a partnership with Securitize to create a tokenized securities platform with 24/7 trading and instant settlement, the WSJ recalls. Through it, investors will be able to use stablecoins to fund trades.
“The legendary exchange is undergoing its grandest – and arguably riskiest – transformation to date: using the distributed ledger technology underlying bitcoin to reinvent the very system that took centuries to build,” WSJ notes.
Comrades in misfortune
The exchange has also expanded its investment into the prediction market, a fast-growing segment where users bet on events ranging from politics to sports. In October 2025, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) agreed to invest up to $2 billion in the Polymarket platform, raising its valuation to $9 billion.
This seemingly improbable deal was made possible largely due to the similar negative experiences of the heads of the NYSE and Polymarket, the publication said. 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 contacted Coplan after the DOJ closed the case. In an interview with CNBC, cited by the WSJ, he said Coplan “was falsely accused and searched by the FBI,” adding that he himself had experienced something similar a few years earlier. “I’m old and bald. He’s young and has hair. I have a whole closet of ties. I don’t think he has a single one. 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.
