Matt Barrett, chief executive, Adaptive
The move to 24/7 trading is real, and trying to bolt it onto yesterday’s platforms simply won’t work. This fundamental change is partly being accelerated by the seismic shift toward the ‘tokenisation of everything’, from US Treasuries to private equity funds. These tokenised assets inherently demand seamless, round-the-clock infrastructure for trading and settlement.
To thrive, firms need an architectural rethink: the capital markets tech stack of the next decade is fundamentally different and deliberately engineered for continuous operations, fast recovery, and clean audit trails by design, not as afterthoughts.
A notable shift is the rise of sequencer architectures, systems that enforce consistent event ordering. In practice, this gives trading and post-trade flows better auditability, quicker recovery after incidents, and true 24/7 operations through determinism.
Winning firms will move to modular platforms with clear interfaces so they can add or upgrade capabilities without rewrites; adopt open source for transparency and faster iteration; and use cloud and tech accelerators to cut time-to-market while retaining control of the parts that truly differentiate them.
Practically, this points to a pragmatic buy-and-build model: buy non-differentiating foundations; build the flows, execution, and client experiences that set you apart – treating vendors as long-term partners.
Marc Biro, managing principal, capital markets, Capco
Capital markets are on the brink of a structural reset as extended trading hours (ETH) move from concept to implementation, reshaping both traditional trading and the rapidly expanding digital asset landscape. In stretching the trading day to one hour beyond the previous close, ETH serves as an initial – and crucial – test of how existing infrastructure can adapt and evolve.
If meaningful volume and price formation are happening outside 9.30am – 4pm, how much of the market are firms not seeing? In Q2 2025, over two billion shares traded outside regular hours; retail investors drove 80% of non–S&P 500 flow. Information moves continuously, but most processes still assume a bounded day. ETH relieves that mismatch, enabling price discovery closer to when information arrives.
Digital assets are normalising near-constant markets. A multi-trillion asset class, underpinned by tokenised securities and 24/7 infrastructure, is bringing programmable settlement, faster collateral mobility and transparency to traditional assets.
2026 is where these worlds will start to converge. Traditional venues extend access; digital infrastructure provides the settlement backbone. For desks, the question is no longer whether markets go continuous, but how firms’ execution, risk and operating models will cope when they do – and whether they will be positioned to proactively shape that market or merely reactively respond to change.
Ben Santos-Stephens, founder and chief executive, ClearToken
Before we know it, 24/7 markets will be here. Liquidity already flows at all hours, and next year, more of the market will expect the same for trading, risk control, and post-trade settlement.
Recent volatility, where traders saw billions liquidated in crypto asset markets, has shown that speed without clear rules creates fragility. The ideal model will look like this: always-on execution with governed clearing rails with embedded risk management that makes settlement predictable, enforceable, and easy to audit.
We will see three shifts. First, standard frequent windows for settlement between market counterparties that repeat through the day, so operations and treasuries can plan and better manage funds.
Second, wider use of netting between settlement cycles will free working capital and reduce the risk from failed payments.
Third, there will be a greater separation of roles: venues can focus on matching, custodians on safekeeping, and market utilities on completing transfers.
London will dominate this transition. Our regulators see the need and opportunity to apply our solid rules to cross-border businesses, and market participants know and trust the UK’s financial market infrastructure. That’s the foundation institutions want as we move toward safe, scalable markets that never close.
Importantly, none have yet suggested this genie could, or should, go back in the bottle – 24/7 markets for equities, derivatives and fixed income are simply a new reality which is already present in crypto assets and which leaders will soon need to navigate for all asset classes.