The SEC just did something more important than approving another ETF — they waived an old custody rule originally written for physical stock certificates. This lets Franklin Templeton's registered funds directly hold their own onchain money fund tokens.
Why does this matter? Most barriers to tokenized assets in the US aren't about crypto being dangerous — they're about outdated plumbing from the paper certificate era. Rules written decades ago assume everything needs a third-party custodian holding physical documents.
The real regulatory shift isn't happening through one big legislative bill. It's happening through quiet exemptions like this, one at a time. Each exemption chips away at the legacy infrastructure that doesn't fit onchain assets.
This is how institutional crypto actually gets built in the US — not through headline-grabbing ETF launches, but through boring administrative rule changes that let traditional finance players custody their own digital assets without violating 1940s-era securities law.
Why does this matter? Most barriers to tokenized assets in the US aren't about crypto being dangerous — they're about outdated plumbing from the paper certificate era. Rules written decades ago assume everything needs a third-party custodian holding physical documents.
The real regulatory shift isn't happening through one big legislative bill. It's happening through quiet exemptions like this, one at a time. Each exemption chips away at the legacy infrastructure that doesn't fit onchain assets.
This is how institutional crypto actually gets built in the US — not through headline-grabbing ETF launches, but through boring administrative rule changes that let traditional finance players custody their own digital assets without violating 1940s-era securities law.