NASDAQ Proposes A Hard $5 Million Market Value Floor For Continued Listing
On January 13, 2026, Nasdaq filed a proposed rule change with the SEC that would impose a new continued listing requirement requiring all Nasdaq Global Market and Nasdaq Capital Market companies to maintain a minimum Market Value of Listed Securities of at least $5 million.
This proposal is part of a steady and deliberate shift Nasdaq has been making over the past several years to tighten its oversight of smaller public companies and to more quickly remove from the market issuers that, in Nasdaq’s view, no longer meet baseline viability.
Other recent Nasdaq initiatives include: (i) an amendment to grant Nasdaq discretionary authority to deny listings based on activity by outside third parties associated with a company including advisors (see HERE); (ii) amendments to increase minimum listing standards for China based companies (see HERE) ; (iii) amendments to accelerate the suspension and delisting of a company that falls below any of the numeric listing requirements, including the bid
NASDAQ Listing Requirements
This blog is the first in a two-part series explaining the listing requirements for the two small-cap national exchanges, NASDAQ and the NYSE MKT, beginning with NASDAQ. In addition to often being asked about the listing requirements on NASDAQ and the NYSE MKT, I am asked about the benefits of trading on such an exchange. Accordingly, at the end of this blog I have included a discussion on such benefits.
The NASDAQ Stock Market
The NASDAQ Stock Market currently has three tiers of listed companies: (1) The NASDAQ Global Select Market, (2) The NASDAQ Global Market and (3) The NASDAQ Capital Market. Each tier has increasingly higher listing standards, with the NASDAQ Global Select Market having the highest initial listing standards and the NASDAQ Capital Markets being the entry-level tier for most micro- and small-cap issuers. Keeping in line with the focus of my blogs and practice, this blog is focused on the NASDAQ Capital Market tier.
A company seeking
