Nasdaq proposes “fast entry” rule to speed up inclusion of large new listings

Coinbase employee Daniel Huynh holds a celebratory bottle of champagne as he photographs outside the Nasdaq MarketSite, in New York's Times Square. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Nasdaq has proposed a new rule to speed up the addition of newly listed large companies to its index, seeking to address delays that have left major IPOs and exchange transfers outside the benchmark for months.

The proposal comes as 2026 is shaping up to be one of the busiest years for new and some big listings, including IPO plans from Elon Musk’s SpaceX and artificial intelligence startup Anthropic.

Under the proposed “Fast Entry” rule, a newly Nasdaq-listed company whose market capitalization ranks among the top 40 current index constituents would be eligible for accelerated inclusion, with at least five trading days’ notice and entry after 15 sessions.

The company would be exempt from standard seasoning and liquidity requirements. It would not replace an existing index member and would temporarily increase the number of constituents until the next annual reconstitution, in line with the treatment of spin-offs, Nasdaq said.

The absence of such a system has often resulted in a disconnect between the index and the broader market, given the size and market impact of such companies. Investors also expect the index to reflect the impact of the addition, which is currently not the case.

The proposal would be significant in 2026 with the tech giants leveraging artificial intelligence, potentially aiming for hundreds of billions in valuation.

Nasdaq is the choice of exchange for tech giants in the U.S. with trillion-dollar market cap companies such as Alphabet and Nvidia.

The Nasdaq 100 index, which houses the biggest names listed on the exchange, is followed by investors and analysts, and serves as a barometer for the health of technology and growth-oriented companies.

(Reporting by Pritam Biswas in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)