Pyth Network Becomes Approved External Distributor of Nasdaq Basic

Pyth Network PYTH$0.064-3.8% received Nasdaq's approval to distribute Nasdaq Basic, the exchange's real-time quote and trade product for U.S. equities, through the Pyth Data Marketplace. The announcement, published September 22, makes Pyth the distribution channel through which clients can license Nasdaq Basic, a status that requires formal Nasdaq authorization to hold.

What Nasdaq Basic Covers

Nasdaq Basic delivers real-time top-of-book data for all U.S. exchange-listed securities, regardless of which venue lists them. The feed includes best bid and offer with size, last sale price and size from Nasdaq venues and the FINRA/Nasdaq Trade Reporting Facility, and Nasdaq's official opening and closing prices.

The product has served brokerages, banks, and fintech firms for more than a decade as a cost-effective alternative to full consolidated data feeds. It differs from Nasdaq TotalView (which shows full depth of book at every price level) in scope: Nasdaq Basic is top-of-book only, covering a broader universe of participants.

External Distributor Status and Client Requirements

An external distributor arrangement is more than a data publishing agreement. It means Nasdaq has approved Pyth to offer Nasdaq Basic to end clients under a licensed commercial relationship. Clients accessing the feed through the Pyth Data Marketplace must still obtain prior written approval from Nasdaq before consuming it, per Pyth's marketplace listing.

Michael Cahill, Core Contributor to Pyth, said the approval reflects Nasdaq's long-standing intent: "Nasdaq has been ahead of that curve for a long time, with Nasdaq Basic existing precisely because they wanted their data in more hands."

Nasdaq's Second Data Product Through Pyth

Today's announcement is the second leg of a commercial relationship that began in June 2026, when Nasdaq joined the Pyth Data Marketplace as a publisher of TotalView, its full depth-of-book product. That arrangement put Nasdaq's most granular order data on a blockchain-accessible feed for the first time. Nasdaq Basic, more widely deployed across the financial industry than TotalView, extends the relationship to a broader tier of institutional data users.

Pyth aggregates feeds from more than 135 institutions, per Traders Magazine, including exchanges, trading firms, and market makers, under a single integration. Earlier today, the network also reached 50 live indices spanning equities, ETFs, metals, and FX, a separate product line built on Pyth's own price data rather than licensed exchange feeds.

Real-Time Equity Data and the Perpetuals Market

The practical target for Nasdaq Basic distribution is applications that already depend on Pyth for pricing. Pyth reports that 96% of perpetual market trading using external data runs on its PYTH (PYTH) feeds. Attaching a licensed Nasdaq Basic channel to that infrastructure means the applications already consuming Pyth's oracle prices could gain access to exchange-direct equity data through the same integration.

That context matters alongside the SEC's five-year innovation exemption for tokenized NMS stock trading, issued earlier in September 2026. As equity-linked instruments migrate onchain, the licensing chain behind their price feeds becomes a compliance consideration, not just a data quality one.