Author: 0xLeoDeng, Partner and Investment Director at LK Ventures

On December 4, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins shared a vision during an interview on Fox Business's "Mornings with Maria" that "the entire U.S. financial market may migrate on-chain within two years," a notion that sounds radical and almost like science fiction.

But if we set aside doubts about the timeline and treat this as a serious future scenario: if this were to happen, what would the U.S. economy be reshaped into?

This is not a simple technological upgrade, but a complete reformatting of the financial operating system. Here are seven levels of structural reshaping:

1. Market Form: A "Light-Speed Machine" That Never Sleeps

The first noticeable change will be in the rhythm of the market's heartbeat.

• The rapid turnover of capital in the T+0 era. The traditional T+1/T+2 settlement cycle will become history. Transactions will settle instantly, with funds almost no longer being idle. This means: the velocity of money will significantly increase, structurally compressing the cost of capital in the entire economy.

• The demise of the "closing bell." The market will operate 24/7 like today's cryptocurrencies. This also means that the transmission of emotions and volatility will no longer have physical barriers. The past buffer period of "closing after hours, we'll talk tomorrow" will disappear; good news or black swans from any corner of the globe will directly impact asset prices at millisecond speeds.

• SEC regulation will become "real-time surveillance." On-chain means absolute transparency. Who is building positions, who is naked shorting, where liquidity is drying up—regulators will no longer rely on lagging reports but will directly monitor on-chain data. For manipulators, this is a nightmare; for the market, this is a new fairness brought by "embedded regulation."

2. Banking: From "Black Box" to "Glass House"

The impact of going on-chain on the commercial banking system is far more profound than on exchanges.

• The "semi-publicization" of balance sheets. When government bonds and credit assets are tokenized, regulators and the market can gain real-time insights into banks' liquidity and collateral quality.

• A double-edged sword effect: Risks of asset mismatches similar to those of SVB (Silicon Valley Bank) will be easier to pre-warn; on the other hand, in a highly transparent world, the spread of fear will have no resistance, and "bank runs" may occur more decisively and lethally.

• Collateralization of everything: Corporate receivables, inventory, and even future cash flows can be turned into standardized on-chain collateral through smart contracts. Financing efficiency will be unprecedentedly improved, but regulatory focus must shift from solely "on-balance-sheet loans" to monitoring the intricate "programmable leverage" on-chain.

3. Real Economy: The "Granularity" Revolution of Capital

This may be an underestimated point—going on-chain will bring about the "democratization of assets."

• "Micro IPOs" for small and medium-sized enterprises. Just as internet advertising allows small businesses to reach users, on-chain finance gives SMEs the opportunity to issue compliant "micro-securities." Financing will no longer be the privilege of giants; the capillaries of capital will penetrate deeper into the economy through blockchain.

• The liquidity release of non-standard assets. A commercial building, a power plant, or even patent rights were previously only accessible to large institutions. In the future, they will be fractionalized, allowing global investors to buy a fraction of a share just like buying stocks.

For the U.S., this means that existing assets within its borders will gain a significant "liquidity premium," attracting global capital to flow in actively.

4. Geopolitics: The "Digital Reinforcement" of Dollar Hegemony

Many mistakenly believe that "going on-chain" means decentralization and a weakening of state power; in fact, it is quite the opposite.

If the U.S. takes the lead in tokenizing government bonds and money market funds (MMFs), allowing global capital to purchase dollar assets at the lowest cost, fastest speed, and with no entry barriers—this will be the strongest moat for dollar hegemony.

In contrast, if the regulatory and infrastructure frameworks in the Eurasian markets cannot keep pace, capital will vote with its feet, flooding into the more efficient and transparent dollar on-chain system. This is not a decline of the dollar but a "generational upgrade of monetary infrastructure."

5. Risk Reconstruction: Crises Will Not Disappear, Only "Mutate"

Financial crises in the on-chain era will present a new face.

• From "human panic" to "code failure." Bugs in smart contracts, manipulation of oracles, the collapse of cross-chain bridges, and chain reactions of automated liquidations will become new sources of systemic risk.

• The "pressure cooker" effect of crises. Future crises will be more "technological" and "condensed." They may erupt and end within minutes, rather than spreading over months like in 2008. Market rescue will no longer rely on "weekend meetings and negotiations," but on "data-driven decisions" and "code patches."

6. Winners and Losers: A Reshuffling of Ecological Niches

Potential Winners:

• Infrastructure builders: On-chain custody, identity verification (DID), compliance oracle service providers.
• New-generation investment banks: Large asset management firms that know how to match on-chain assets globally.
• Versatile talents: Scarce talents who understand both financial compliance and can read Solidity code.

Transformational Pain Bearers:

• Traditional intermediaries: Clearinghouses, transfer agents, and brokers profiting from information asymmetry will be replaced by smart contracts if they do not undergo self-revolution.
• Gray industries: Any industry relying on opaque, non-compliant capital flows will have nowhere to hide under fully traceable regulation.

7. Reality Check: The Direction is Certain, Only the Speed is Variable

Finally, back to reality. Achieving this in two years? Almost impossible.

The bottlenecks of technological throughput, the lag of legal frameworks, and the struggles of vested interests are three mountains that are hard to flatten within 24 months.

A more likely path is gradual: starting with government bonds, the repo market, and some OTC derivatives, with the old and new systems running in parallel, slowly eroding the old world.

But regardless of speed, the direction pointed out by Paul Atkins is irreversible. This is not just a technological iteration but an instinctive choice of capital pursuing higher efficiency. The future of the U.S. financial market is destined to be on-chain.

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