The SEC issues an on-chain stock trading "innovative exemption" order, giving a temporary green light for tokenized NMS stock trading

On September 18, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) formally rolled out a temporary regulatory measure called the "Innovative Exemption," aimed at opening a compliance pathway for secondary trading of tokenized stocks based on blockchain protocols.

According to an order issued on September 17, eligible "tokenized securities trading venues" (TSVs) may receive a temporary, conditional exemption, without being required to be reclassified as traditional exchanges.

This also means that these tokenized securities trading venues can directly facilitate secondary trading of tokenized National Market System (NMS) stocks through approved automated market makers (AMMs) and liquidity pools.

To support this new mechanism, the SEC provided limited conditional dealer registration exemptions to specific service providers that supply tokenized stocks to liquidity pools, with the goal of strengthening the on-chain stock trading regulatory ecosystem.

Moreover, to protect investors’ interests and maintain market stability, the SEC also set out stringent safeguards and requirements in the exemption order, specifically as follows:

That is, tokenized shares must enjoy the same rights as traditional stocks; trading volume and the number of securities that can be issued will be limited; smart contracts must undergo public audits and be deployed on public blockchains; and when the underlying stock is halted, on-chain trading must stop simultaneously.

SEC Chair Paul Atkins said that while this innovative exemption is temporary, it allows tokenized securities trading venues to trade tokenized NMS stocks in a regulated environment. At the same time, the Commission is assessing whether it should further promote the development of on-chain trading.

He also emphasized that as the SEC takes this important first step, it invites the public to share comments on various aspects of the innovative exemption, to provide references for the Commission’s subsequent consideration of further rule revisions.

Overall, the significance of this exemption order goes far beyond a single policy. It both establishes a clear compliance testing ground for on-chain stock trading and accumulates practical data to help the SEC systematically improve its regulatory framework for tokenized securities in the future.

In a sense, this is equivalent to U.S. regulators officially launching a "regulatory sandbox" for the on-chain securities market, and its subsequent direction will provide key regulatory templates for the entire industry.

#代币化美股