SEC to Allow Tokenized Stocks in U.S.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday issued a temporary order allowing certain types of tokenized stocks—crypto tokens that represent equities—to trade in the U.S., a crypto-friendly move that has drawn pushback from some traditional financial firms. Shares of tokenization firm Securitize and crypto exchange Bullish, which offers tokenization services, jumped 15% and 9% after the SEC order.

The order, which the regulator calls an “innovation exemption” and will last for five years, would exempt trading venues from some rules that apply to stock exchanges so that they can list stock tokens that are directly issued by a public company or by a third party whose tokens convey the same shareholder rights and are not objected by the issuer. It would rule out crypto tokens that represent synthetic exposure to the underlying equities, which are popular outside the U.S.

Separately, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued a guidance allowing crypto wallet software providers to enable trading of derivatives products without registering as an introducing broker. Hyperliquid Policy Center and Phantom had earlier filed a letter asking the CFTC to allow regulated companies to use on-chain markets for matching and settling trades while exempting developers and apps that don’t hold customer funds from registration requirements.