Did you see that message? Yesterday, Nasdaq officially submitted an application to the SEC to extend US stock trading hours from 5×16 hours to 5×23 hours.

Sounds good - the market opens at 9 PM on Sunday and closes at 8 PM on Friday, making the dream of round-the-clock trading seem achievable. But there is a painful question behind this: why 23 hours instead of the true 7×24?

Nasdaq itself has stated the truth - one hour must be reserved every day (Beijing time 20:00-21:00) for system maintenance. What is this one hour for? Clearing, settlement, and reconciliation. Listen to this process: data needs to be submitted to a centralized clearinghouse, brokers have to do manual reconciliation, and banks perform batch processing... This system, established half a century ago, cannot operate continuously.

Interestingly, this "impossible task" has long been achieved in the cryptocurrency market. Blockchain and smart contracts inherently support 7×24×365 permanent trading—no exchange closing times, no clearing interruptions, completely executed automatically by machines.

The data confirms this: In the second quarter of 2025, the after-hours trading volume of U.S. stocks accounted for 11.5%. A large number of institutional investors are bypassing regular trading hours and turning to the "dark pool" market for after-hours trading. In simple terms, investors are voting with their feet, already demanding 24/7 trading.

Nasdaq's decision to extend trading hours is less about innovation and more about fixing the inherent flaws of the traditional financial system. On the other hand, the cryptocurrency market has long established a 24/7 trading mechanism as a norm. This gap is likely to become increasingly apparent.