TL;DR
- The SEC published its long-awaited “Innovation Exemption” to allow onchain trading of tokenized stocks on eligible venues.
- The measure takes effect immediately and comes after the Senate rejected the Clarity Act bill by 49 votes to 50.
- The exemption lasts five years, excludes synthetics, and allows issuers to veto the trading of their stocks on these platforms.
The SEC published its long-awaited “Innovation Exemption“, days after the Senate rejected the Clarity Act, the legislative initiative that sought to establish for the first time a comprehensive federal framework for the digital assets industry. For the agency, the measure is a direct response to the legislative standstill and an autonomous step forward within its statutory authority.
“Congress failed to advance the Clarity Act despite the tireless efforts of many,” said Paul Atkins, SEC chairman. “That is why today we take a significant step to bring the United States capital markets into the digital age, facilitating onchain trading of certain tokenized stocks.”
🚨 TODAY: The SEC issued an order granting temporary, conditional exemptive relief to Tokenized Securities Venues from the definition of “exchange” in the Exchange Act to trade tokenized NMS stock using innovative permissioned automated market makers and liquidity pools. pic.twitter.com/VDi7Oty2d9
— U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (@SECGov) September 17, 2026
The SEC Reorders the Markets
The SEC exemption allows certain trading venues, called “tokenized securities venues”, to be excluded from the definition of exchange under law. It also exempts certain liquidity providers from being classified as dealers when they trade stocks or provide liquidity through automated market makers, that is, smart contracts. The measure takes effect immediately, although the agency will open a public comment period and will move forward with a more permanent regulation.
Eligible venues must comply with applicable sanctions rules. The exemption does not cover synthetic instruments—those that replicate the price of an asset without directly holding it—and issuers retain the power to prevent their stocks from being traded on these platforms.
Acting without Congress
The exemption is part of the “Project Crypto” program that Atkins has been advancing since the beginning of the year, together with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The chairman of that agency, Michael Selig, stated he was “ready to publish its rules for the new frontier of finance“.
The SEC is also moving forward to change the net capital requirements for brokers and the custody and registration standards for digital assets, developing a regulatory framework through administrative channels in the face of inaction from the Legislative Branch.
