Tokenisation, 24/7 markets, and the next evolution of clearing: what it means for trading infrastructure
Cleared derivatives markets have always been technology-driven. But the conversation is clearly shifting. It’s no longer only about “how do we comply with the next rule?” It’s also: how do we operate safely and efficiently in markets that are becoming more real-time, more digital, and increasingly continuous?
Across the industry, three topics keep coming back: collateral mobility, 24/7 risk management, and the role of tokenised settlement assets (including wholesale CBDC initiatives). The message is consistent: the opportunity is real but the path will be hybrid, and success will depend on strong risk frameworks, interoperability, and operational resilience.
The real bottleneck: collateral and operational friction
If you ask most market participants what slows them down, it’s rarely the trading decision itself. It’s the plumbing around it:
- margin calls and settlement processes that still require manual controls,
- fragmented collateral location (custodians, CCP accounts, clearing members),
- buffers that sit idle “just in case,” because the system isn’t real-time.
This is where newer rails (DLT, tokenisation, API-driven workflows) are seen as promising: not because they magically remove risk, but because they could reduce fragmentation, speed up transfers, and improve the visibility of collateral across the chain.
For a trading firm, this matters directly: trapped collateral is not just inefficient it impacts capacity, funding cost, and ultimately performance.
Why “instant settlement” is not a free lunch
There is also a growing realism in the industry: moving everything to T+0 does not automatically make markets safer or cheaper.
Instant settlement can actually become very expensive if participants must fully pre-fund every trade at entry. Modern cleared markets are efficient largely because of netting, which reduces the funding needs to a smaller end-of-day (or intraday) exposure.
So the direction many infrastructures are taking is not “replace everything overnight,” but rather:
- keep what works (netting, CCP-grade risk controls),
- modernise the workflow (better connectivity, faster margining cycles where it makes sense),
- and introduce tokenization selectively where it improves mobility and transparency.
In other words: hybrid is not a compromise it’s the pragmatic route.
24/7 markets: risk management becomes continuous
Another shift is becoming impossible to ignore: certain markets already operate close to 24/7, and more are moving that way.
Continuous markets create real questions:
- How do you manage risk over weekends?
- How do you handle margining when the traditional post-trade cycle is built around “end of day”?
- How do you ensure recovery and resilience if something breaks at 2 a.m.?
This is why the industry focus is widening from “new tech” to the less glamorous but critical topics:
- resilience and recovery,
- data quality (because in a real-time environment, bad data can trigger wrong actions very fast),
- and cybersecurity (because more connectivity increases the attack surface).
Standards and interoperability will decide the winners
Right now, there are many pilots and many proof-of-concepts. That’s normal at the beginning of any cycle. But the long-term value will not come from having the “best isolated solution.” It will come from being able to connect across infrastructures.
The market needs:
- industry standards (workflows, messaging, asset definitions),
- and regulatory standards (clear guardrails for new forms of collateral and settlement assets).
Without that, tokenisation risks recreating a problem markets have spent decades trying to solve: fragmentation.
What this means for Horizon clients
At Horizon, we see these themes as strongly aligned with what trading firms need today and what they will need tomorrow.
1) A strong risk framework that can support evolution
Whether markets stay T+1 or move toward more real-time cycles, risk controls cannot be an afterthought. Trading infrastructure must support:
- robust pre-trade and post-trade controls,
- auditability,
- and the ability to evolve without breaking operational stability.
This is exactly where Horizon’s approach matters: a production-grade trading platform built for performance, governance, and change.
2) Better automation around workflows and integration
Many of the “new market structure” benefits only happen if firms can actually integrate and automate quickly:
- margin workflows,
- reference data,
- trading controls,
- routing logic,
- reporting and surveillance.
Horizon Extend is designed for this reality: giving firms the ability to build, adapt, and automate workflows and execution logic efficiently, without being locked into a rigid, one-size-fits-all model.
3) Resilient operations in volatile and continuous markets
As markets become more continuous, the operational bar rises. It’s not only about latency it’s about reliability:
- resilience,
- monitoring,
- recovery,
- controlled releases,
- and support models that match the business criticality.
This is where Horizon’s managed services and hosting capabilities play an important role: clients want to modernise, but they also need confidence that the system will behave correctly under stress.
4) Flexibility to adapt as collateral and settlement evolve
Tokenised collateral, new settlement assets, and new connectivity models will not arrive as one “big bang.” They will appear in steps, across regions, and not always consistently.
Horizon’s modular approach is built for that kind of evolution: supporting new workflows and integrations while keeping the core execution and order management stable and auditable.
A practical conclusion: modernisation is happening, but safely
The next evolution of cleared markets will not be defined by a single technology. It will be defined by how well the industry can combine:
- innovation (tokenisation, APIs, automation),
- with the fundamentals (netting, robust risk management, resilience),
- while avoiding fragmentation through interoperability and standards.
For trading firms, the priority is not to “follow the hype.” The priority is to invest in infrastructure that is adaptable, operationally solid, and ready for new market rails when they become real.
That is the direction Horizon is built for: helping clients run high-performance trading today, while staying ready for what the market structure becomes next.