Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo appeared on Fox Business Monday to promote 24/7 tokenized stock trading after joining the board of crypto exchange OKX.

The crypto trading platform said Monday that Cuomo had joined its board of directors, deepening his existing ties to the exchange. Last month, OKX and New York Stock Exchange parent Intercontinental Exchange formed a 50-50 joint venture co-chaired by Cuomo.

"So crypto, OKX, fintech, coming together with ICE [and the] New York Stock Exchange — that is a marriage that should have happened a long time ago," Cuomo told Fox Business. "When people talk about crypto, they tend to talk about tokens, etc. That’s not how I see crypto. I see it as the financial infrastructure of the future."

OKX is one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, although it trails global market leader Binance. Traditionally focused on international markets, OKX is seeking to expand in the U.S., where Coinbase dominates crypto trading and tokenized equities are attracting growing interest from crypto and traditional financial firms.

Describing ICE as the "quintessential traditional finance company," Cuomo seems to have confidence the partnership with OKX could play a role in growing the market for round-the-clock, onchain equities trading, including bringing more foreign capital into U.S. markets.

"Just imagine a world ... where you can trade stocks 24/7 internationally," he said. "Literally trillions of dollars internationally could be invested into the U.S. economy, into our exchanges."

Cuomo also explained how he believes tokenization could change equities trading.

"Tokenization says you can have fractional ownership. You can have a digital representation of that asset," Cuomo went on to say. "So you can buy a tenth of one stock, you can buy half of one stock, and the transactions digitally are immediate."

Onchain stock trading has increasingly become a focus across the crypto industry as digital-asset companies seek to bring U.S. stocks onchain and expand international access to American markets. Robinhood offers European customers tokens tied to hundreds of U.S. stocks and ETFs, while Backpack recently launched 24/7 trading in tokenized shares.

Expand Chart

Cuomo’s public support for crypto dates back at least to last year, when his unsuccessful New York City mayoral campaign proposed creating a chief innovation officer responsible for advancing the city’s adoption of blockchain and artificial intelligence.