U.S. SEC Grants Temporary, Conditional Relief to Enable On-Chain Trading of Tokenized Stocks

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has approved a temporary, conditional "innovation exemption" designed to support on-chain trading of certain tokenized equities, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins said in a statement. Under the relief, qualifying tokenized securities trading venues (TSVs) and certain liquidity providers will be temporarily excluded from the Securities Exchange Act definitions of "exchange" and "dealer". Eligible venues must be based in the United States, comply with U.S. sanctions rules, and enforce access restrictions. Tokenized stocks covered by the exemption must confer the same rights as traditional securities, including dividend and voting rights, and may not involve synthetic products. Issuers must also be given a mechanism to object and block trading of their securities on the relevant venues. Atkins noted that federal securities law antifraud and antimanipulation provisions remain fully in force. He described the exemption as an interim step, to be followed by longer-term rulemaking aimed at establishing a durable regulatory framework for on-chain markets. Source: Foresight News