Catenaa, Thursday, September 17, 2026- The Securities and Exchange Commission has opened a path for onchain trading of tokenized U.S. stocks, issuing a temporary exemption for qualifying venues days after the Senate failed to advance broader crypto legislation.
The SEC said the order gives conditional relief to Tokenized Securities Venues, or TSVs, from the Exchange Act definition of an exchange. It also grants temporary relief to certain liquidity providers in automated market maker pools from dealer registration requirements.
The framework applies to tokenized National Market System stocks, or blockchain-based versions of listed U.S. shares. It does not cover synthetic products that mimic a stock’s price without representing the underlying security.
The exemption takes effect immediately and will run for five years while the SEC gathers public comment and considers whether more permanent rules are needed.
Under the order, a TSV must ensure that a tokenized stock gives holders the same rights and privileges as the traditional share class. That includes the rights attached to the underlying stock. A venue must also notify the issuer before listing a tokenized stock created by an unaffiliated third party and give that issuer a chance to object.
The SEC also said smart contracts used by the venue must be public and auditable. Trading must stop when the underlying stock is halted on its primary listing exchange. The agency also imposed limits on the number of symbols and trading volume allowed under the exemption and required public disclosures about operations and affiliate trading.
The move gives crypto firms, brokers and tokenization platforms a clearer route into the U.S. market for tokenized equities, an area that has drawn rising interest as firms seek faster settlement, broader access and round-the-clock trading.
It also forms part of a wider SEC effort to update securities rules for blockchain-based markets. Chair Paul Atkins has spent much of this year promoting Project Crypto, a regulatory push aimed at modernizing rules for digital assets and related market infrastructure.
The timing is notable. The Senate this week failed to clear a procedural hurdle for the Clarity Act, which would have created a broader federal framework for digital asset markets. That setback left regulators to keep moving with narrower actions under existing law.
The SEC’s order does not replace legislation. But it gives the market a working framework for tokenized stock trading while Washington continues debating a broader digital asset rulebook.
