Jeff Sprecher, chair & chief executive of ICE, said on the results call on 5 February 2026 that the firm is not pursuing tokenization as a novelty or as a substitute for how markets operate.

“Today, we’re exploring tokenization as a potential evolution of existing market infrastructure,” he said. “One that could further improve capital efficiencies, broaden access and advance settlement processes, such as our recent announcements with BNY and Citi to accept tokenized collateral, all while preserving the safeguards governance and neutrality that institutional markets require, and that ICE is known for.”

ICE is working with banks including BNY and Citi to support tokenized deposits across its clearinghouses to help members transfer and manage money outside traditional banking hours, meet margin obligations, and accommodate funding requirements across different jurisdictions and time zones.

On 19 January 2026 ICE said in a statement that it is developing a platform for trading and on-chain settlement of tokenized securities. NYSE’s new digital platform will enable 24/7 operations, instant settlement, orders sized in dollar amounts, and stablecoin-based funding. Subject to regulatory approvals, the new NYSE venue will support trading of tokenized shares fungible with traditionally issued securities as well as tokens natively issued as digital securities.

Sprecher highlighted that ICE plans to apply for regulatory approval for the new venue under existing federal laws and regulations and enable foreign distribution under its existing securities passporting relationships.

“This NYSE tokenization initiative is not dependent on the passage of the U.S. Clarity Act or any other foreign legislation,” he added. “Our intent is to tokenize regulated securities that attach contractual rights and interests to their holders, just as they occur under existing securities law, such as ownership rights, dividends and voting privileges.”

Tokenization will sit alongside the infrastructure that ICE already operates across exchanges, clearing houses, data platforms and networks.

“We believe this approach positions us well to support innovation while maintaining the stability that customers and regulators expect from ICE operated venues,” said Sprecher.

Clearing

On 3 February 2026 the group said in a statement that  ICE Clear Credit’s U.S. cash Treasury clearing service had gone operationally live. This provides market participants with the first alternative venue for clearing U.S. Treasury securities almost a year in advance of the SEC’s January 2027 Treasury clearing mandate.

This is separate from ICE’s existing credit default swap (CDS) clearing service, which was formed during the financial crisis in 2009. The Treasury clearing business has its own rulebook, membership, risk management framework, financial and liquidity resources, and governance structure.

Stan Ivanov, president of ICE Clear Credit, said in a statement: “With our Treasury clearing service now operationally live and ready to clear cash transactions, we’re thrilled to put the final touches on our approach to clearing repos, which we expect to be ready for testing and integration in the second half of the year, and is planned to go live in the fourth quarter.”

Volumes

ICE reported record volumes across its exchange complex. Ben Jackson, president and chair of ICE mortgage technology, said on the call that  2025 was another record year for derivatives with 2.3bn futures and options contracts traded, surpassing the prior record set in 2024 by 13%. Record average daily volume of 9.3 million contracts was up 14% year-over-year across asset classes and geographies.

“This momentum translated into our thirteenth consecutive year of record futures revenue in 2025, which grew 11% for the year and 8% in the fourth quarter,” said Jackson. “The breadth of our energy complex continued to lead with strength across oil and gas.”

Jackson highlighted that activity continued into 2026 with January marking the strongest month for trading activity in ICE’s history. Trading in energy achieved record average daily volume, up 27% year over year. He said: “It’s an unbelievable start to the year.”

Total open interest increased 18% year-on-year, including record open interest of 114.4m lots on 26 January 2026.

Global energy demand is rising, driven in part by the rapid expansion of data centers, electrification and AI infrastructure so Jackson said capital efficient risk management is critical. In 2025 ICE rolled out a new risk model, IRM 2, which offers customers greater margining benefits when the portfolio is diversified or hedged.

Warren Gardiner, chief financial officer of ICE, said on the call: “Looking to 2026 we expect the exchange segment’s recurring revenues to grow in the mid -single digit range, driven by continued growth in data services and expansion in our listings franchise.”

On 28 January 2026 ICE said in a statement that it had launched Reddit Signals and Sentiment, a suite of data and analytical tools that transforms millions of Reddit conversations into structured, actionable market signals for investors. The new service aims to  reduce the time it takes for social signals to surface and be integrated into trading strategies by analyzing anonymized and aggregated trends from the real-time Reddit data stream, and applying AI and ICE’s data science expertise.

Chris Edmonds, president of ICE’s fixed income and data services, said in a statement: “By bringing our vast experience working with large, complex datasets, we’re able to quickly identify useful market signals, connect them to companies and securities in our entity database, and compress the information cycle to help investors find new alpha-generating opportunities and manage risk.”

Reddit Signals and Sentiment is available over ICE’s data platforms, including the ICE Consolidated Feed.

Financials

Gardiner described 2025 on the call as a “landmark” year for ICE as the group reported its twentieth consecutive year of record revenues and continued earnings per share growth.

Full year 2025 consolidated net revenues were $9.9bn, up 6% year-over-year. This included exchange net revenues of $5.4bn, up 9% year-over-year and fixed income and data services revenues of $2.4bn, up 5% year-over-year.

Consolidated net income attributable to ICE was $3.3bn and annual operating income was a record $4.9bn, up 14% year-on-year.

The index business ended 2025 with a record $794bn in ETF assets under management tracking ICE indices, up over 20% versus 2024. Gardiner said growth reflected the increasing adoption of ICE’s data and indices and the quality of benchmark products.

Gardiner said expense growth is expected to be between 3% and 4% range, driven by annual merit increases and investments in expanding data centers  to meet growing customer demand and developing new AI tools that will drive future productivity and innovation.

Investments will include installing AI infrastructure, storage and network equipment designed to handle AI and data intensive workloads.

“Importantly, capital expenditure also includes elevated investment in real estate of approximately $250m as we build revenue-generating data center capacity and new office space in Jacksonville, Dallas, Washington D.C. and India,” added Gardiner. “These are all strategic growth enabling investments that position us for long-term success.”