Nasdaq & Talos join forces on tokenised collateral

Nasdaq and Talos have partnered to connect Talos' digital asset infrastructure with Nasdaq's Calypso and Trade Surveillance platforms. The tie-up is aimed at tokenised collateral management across traditional and digital asset markets.

The combined offering is intended to address a longstanding hurdle for institutional investors: fitting digital assets into existing collateral, margin and risk systems. Under the arrangement, firms will be able to manage on-chain and off-chain collateral processes within a single operating environment.

Tokenised collateral refers to traditional financial assets represented digitally on distributed ledger technology. The model is intended to let securities, cash equivalents and other qualifying assets move more quickly across platforms and jurisdictions. But adoption by large financial institutions has been slowed by operational and control requirements.

Nasdaq's research found that 25% of collateral is tied up in corrective and non-interest-bearing measures, amounting to more than USD $35 billion in excess or non-remunerated collateral. That figure underpins the business case for systems that improve collateral efficiency while fitting within existing institutional controls.

Calypso is used by financial firms to manage risk, margin and collateral across mainstream asset classes. Talos focuses on digital asset trading and operations, including portfolio construction, valuation, execution and back-office workflows. By connecting the two, the partnership aims to give market participants broader access to venues, custodians and collateral workflows across conventional and digital markets.

Surveillance link

The partnership also extends beyond collateral management into market oversight. Talos clients will gain access to Nasdaq Trade Surveillance, which is used to monitor trading activity and investigate suspected market abuse across different market types.

Users of the Talos platform will be able to monitor trades executed through Talos with the same surveillance system used by exchanges and other institutional market participants. The system includes alerts designed to identify patterns such as layering, spoofing, wash trading and cross-market manipulation.

This matters because digital asset markets have faced persistent scrutiny over market integrity and the effectiveness of compliance controls. As more institutional investors enter the sector, regulators and clients have increased scrutiny of whether digital asset trading venues and service providers can meet standards already familiar in equities, derivatives and fixed income markets.

In that context, surveillance is becoming a more important part of digital asset infrastructure. The arrangement is positioned as a way for firms to connect execution, collateral and compliance processes more closely, rather than treating digital assets as a separate operational silo.

"This partnership solves a fundamental challenge facing institutional markets: the inability to manage exposure across markets with a single risk and asset lens," said Roland Chai, Executive Vice President, Nasdaq. "This partnership builds on a series of strategic initiatives designed to converge on- and off-chain market ecosystems, while preserving the liquidity, transparency and integrity of regulated markets. As both a market operator and technology provider to the global financial industry, Nasdaq is uniquely positioned to drive forward the next wave of innovation and growth across global capital markets."

The agreement reflects a wider effort across capital markets to bring tokenised forms of traditional assets into existing financial infrastructure rather than build entirely separate systems. Banks, exchanges, custodians and market technology providers have all been exploring how distributed ledger-based assets can be incorporated into established post-trade and risk processes.

For institutions, one of the main constraints has been less about tokenisation itself than about controlling exposure consistently across different systems and jurisdictions. A collateral asset that can move more freely may offer efficiency gains, but institutions still need to calculate margin, monitor concentration, track counterparties and satisfy compliance requirements using tools that fit broader enterprise processes.

The deal also underlines Nasdaq's continued push into digital asset market infrastructure after years of focusing on trading technology, surveillance and post-trade systems for regulated markets. Talos, meanwhile, has built its position by offering institutions a single point of access to multiple digital asset liquidity providers, custodians and service firms.

"The evolution toward tokenised collateral is a natural progression for institutional capital markets," said Anton Katz, CEO and Co-Founder, Talos. "By combining Talos's digital asset infrastructure with Nasdaq's Calypso and Trade Surveillance platforms, firms can connect workflows for execution, risk, collateral and compliance to reduce operational friction across both on- and off-chain asset classes."