Ava Labs' John Nahas says NYSE deal ends blockchain's general-purpose era

Key points

• John Nahas, chief business officer at Ava Labs, said the NYSE platform marks "the end of the general purpose era" for blockchains.
• The NYSE-affiliated platform will use Avalanche technology for clearing and settlement, and the exchange spent a year testing it.

Ava Labs' John Nahas says the NYSE tokenisation deal signals the end of the general-purpose blockchain era, arguing that financial institutions now want networks built around their own rules. The chief business officer of the company behind Avalanche told Cointelegraph that the planned NYSE-affiliated platform for tokenised securities, which will use Avalanche for clearing and settlement, shows institutions want control over who joins their networks and how much settlement costs.

Nahas said capital markets need predictable performance and costs, and that a chain serving the NYSE has to be purpose built. He argued that crypto's attachment to open, all-purpose networks and its reluctance to meet institutional compliance rules have held adoption back. The NYSE spent a year testing Avalanche, he said, which gave Ava Labs time to tailor its approach.

Public networks such as Ethereum stay open underneath, and congestion can push transaction fees up.

The NYSE announcement came on 9 November, as companies push back against third-party tokenisation of their shares on OKXICE, a venue proposed by OKX and NYSE parent Intercontinental Exchange. OKXICE listed 67 objecting companies as of 5 Nov, among them Apple, Amazon, Meta and Tesla.

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