SEC grants temporary exemption for tokenized US stock trading

The US Securities and Exchange Commission approved a temporary exemption that allows limited trading of tokenized US stocks on certain onchain venues. The framework runs under the SEC’s Innovation Exemption and applies to permissioned activity.

What the SEC approved

Commissioner Mark Uyeda said the Innovation Exemption permits Tokenized Securities Venues (TSVs) to offer permissioned trading of tokenized National Market System (NMS) stocks. The approval was announced Thursday.

TSVs can conduct trading through automated market makers and liquidity pools, with conditions tied to how transactions are handled and monitored.

Trading limits and transparency requirements

The exemption is designed to be controlled, Uyeda said. Symbol and volume limits apply to the permitted activity.

TSVs must also publish US dollar-denominated transaction data on a regular basis. Required fields include prices, trade sizes, timestamps, pool addresses, end-of-day pool sizes and daily volumes.

Compliance, recordkeeping, and technology safeguards

The SEC set additional requirements for transaction transparency, recordkeeping and technology safeguards. TSVs must meet these standards to qualify for the temporary permission to trade tokenized NMS stocks.

The SEC said the framework would provide data to evaluate onchain securities trading and support future rulemaking.

Public feedback process

The SEC is seeking public feedback on the framework, including data, case studies and information from live or test environments.

The regulator has been working on the innovation exemption for months. In February, SEC Chair Paul Atkins said the SEC was considering a temporary framework allowing limited trading of tokenized securities through automated market makers while it developed longer-term rules.

Why it matters

A temporary path for tokenized stock trading creates a structured compliance test for onchain markets. The SEC’s data and reporting requirements will determine what the agency learns before moving toward broader standards.