Episode summary
Nasdaq CEO Reveals the Next Era Of The Stock Market - Adena Friedman | All-In Summit
All-In Podcast
· · Hosts: Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis, David Sacks, David Friedberg · Guests: Adena Friedman
Summary
Adena Friedman framed Nasdaq as much more than a stock exchange: a global market-technology, index, and surveillance business built around providing infrastructure to 17 markets directly and 135 others worldwide. She said Nasdaq has expanded from roughly $2.5 billion of revenue when she became CEO to a little over $2.5 billion of EBITDA by the end of last year, while also growing its index business and financial-crime tools. The centerpiece of the discussion was Nasdaq’s announcement that it will bring tokenized securities into its core markets, alongside its move toward 24/5 trading.
Friedman argued that tokenization can reduce post-trade friction and modernize settlement, and she said the market is already scaled for constant activity, with 95 billion messages entering Nasdaq systems in one day and a 20-microsecond median order-to-trade time. She tied that to a broader convergence between traditional and digital markets, saying regulatory clarity is the key condition for institutions to participate in crypto and tokenized assets.
The conversation also covered IPO reform, prediction markets, private-market liquidity, dollarization, Fed independence, and leverage. Friedman said public markets matter because they let everyday investors own the economy, but she also called the current public-company burden excessive and endorsed disclosure, proxy, and litigation reform. She was bullish on the dollar as reserve currency and described the Fed as highly data-driven and apolitical, while warning that rising leverage and commercial real estate remain areas to watch.
Key takeaways
- Friedman said Nasdaq is using tokenization to move equities into its core markets, not a side venue, and sees that as a path to lower post-trade friction.
- She said Nasdaq’s 24/5 trading push is already underway, though she expects official U.S. market open and close times to remain important.
- Friedman argued that public markets need lighter disclosure, proxy, and litigation burdens so more companies will go public sooner.
- She said regulatory clarity is the main reason Nasdaq has not yet competed more aggressively in crypto, and that institutions need the same clarity to participate.
- Friedman remained bullish on the dollar as reserve currency, but said high U.S. debt could push investors toward alternatives if returns deteriorate.
Notable quotes
“we're going to be bringing tokenization into our markets. So making sure that equities are tokenized and traded on market in the markets”
“we are all moving in that direction. We announced several months ago that we're moving to 245”
“when a company goes public they get access to billions of investors and every citizen in this country gets a chance to become an owner in the economy”
How the episode opens
Over the last year to date, up 14%. Over the last year, NASDAQ shares up 40%. Over the 5-year period, more than doubled, up over 100%.
You've been on a real tear. She is often on the list of not just the most influential women in finance, but just the most influential. Adena transformed NASDAQ into a global tech powerhouse.
Adena is a dealmaker at her core. NASDAQ is in the business of deals. We are here to advance economic progress for all.
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome NASDAQ CEO Adena Freriedman. Welcome. Hey Jason, how are you?
Thanks for coming. How are you? Hi.
It's great to see you. Hey, great. It's great to be here.
Welcome. Thanks for coming out. What a day you've been having.
Yeah. So, you caught some of the action earlier today, right? I did.
I did. I've been watching from behind the scenes. It's been amazing to watch.
You've been hanging backstage. Did you have a favorite moment or speaker? Oh, I I I never like to pick favorites at NASDAQ.
We don't pick favorites. Um uh we have great companies, but obviously Rene is a wonderful NASDAQ listed company that and I've gotten to know it very well with ARM. So, I would say always have great conversations.
But you know, sorry, but NASDAQ's more than a market. I think I wanted to start with this real important question because when when we were talking, I didn't realize that NASDAQ was more than just the NASDAQ market that we all know. Maybe just for the for the audience you could just share a little bit more about the broader business.
Sure. Thank you. Well, so first of all, we are really proud of our foundation as a market.
But as we started to grow and expand the business, first of all, you know, when I became CEO, we had about two and a half million billion dollars in revenue.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- tokenized securities
- 24/5 trading
- ipo market
- spvs and secondaries
- fed data and market outlook
Companies and tickers mentioned
- NDAQ
- GOOGL
- GOOG
- NVDA
- ORCL
- Nasdaq
- Google Cloud
- Nvidia
- Oracle
- Athletic Brewing
Watch the episode
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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