The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has established a special regime for platforms working with tokenized securities. Platforms with the status of Tokenized Securities Venue (TSV) will be able to conduct trading operations within the framework of an exemption from the standard regime for exchanges provided by the regulator. However, these platforms are subject to restrictions on the number of trading symbols and the volume of operations. Before admitting a tokenized stock, the platform must ensure that the digital instrument provides the owner with the same rights and privileges as the corresponding traditional security. Thus, tokenization should not change the set of rights associated with the underlying asset.
Separate requirements are established for tokens issued by a third party independent of the issuer. Before the start of trading, the market maker is required to notify in writing the company that issued the underlying stock and provide it with the opportunity to object to the launch of the instrument. This requirement is intended to reduce the risk of tokens appearing that use the name or data of an existing company without its involvement. The rules also provide that the smart contracts of the trading platform must be public, available for audit, and deployed on an open blockchain. In addition, the TSV must simultaneously suspend trading of the tokenized security and the underlying stock if trading of the latter is halted on the main exchange where it is registered.
TSV is also subject to requirements for disclosing information about the platform's operations, transactions, and affiliated persons. In this part, its activities must comply with a number of principles applied to traditional trading platforms. At the same time, the SEC has granted liquidity providers for pools of tokenized stocks a five-year exemption from mandatory registration as dealers. Such status is usually required for participants who regularly buy and sell securities on their own account, performing functions to ensure market liquidity. The five-year exemption period began on September 17, 2026, the day the relevant SEC order was published.
Related articles
