U.S. Regulators Lower Barriers for Tokenized Stocks and Prediction Markets

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved the on-chain trading (transactions on the blockchain) of tokenized stocks. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has also eased registration requirements for online platforms that connect users to prediction markets and similar services. Expectations are rising that the pace of digital financial market activation will accelerate even further.

Reuters Yonhap News

According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and Bloomberg News, the SEC announced on September 17 (local time) that it would exempt certain regulatory requirements applied to stock exchanges for tokenized stock trading platforms that meet specified conditions, for a period of five years.

The ruling allows trading not only of stocks tokenized directly by a company, but also those tokenized by third parties. However, tokenized stocks must provide the same shareholder rights as regular stocks, such as dividends and voting rights. Synthetic tokens that simply track share prices are explicitly excluded from this approval. When a third party tokenizes a company's stock, they must notify the issuing company, which is then given the opportunity to raise objections. For example, if Nvidia stock were to be tokenized, it would not be sufficient to merely track the share price; it would also be necessary to provide shareholder rights such as dividends and voting power.

The WSJ noted that the SEC's decision came just two days after the Clarity Act, a major digital asset bill, failed to pass the congressional voting process. The move was interpreted as showing a commitment to establishing a regulatory pathway for some digital assets and related products to enter the traditional financial market. SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins stated in a press release, "Many have made constant efforts, but Congress failed to advance the Clarity Act. Today, the SEC has facilitated certain on-chain trading of tokenized stocks within the authority granted by law. This is a major step forward in ushering America's capital markets into the digital era."

The CFTC also lowered the barriers to trading via online platforms. Software companies that do not custody customer assets but merely connect users with regulated trading firms will no longer be penalized for failing to register as intermediaries. Previously, companies that solicited or accepted trading orders, passed them on to futures commission merchants (FCMs), and collected commissions were required to register as brokers. However, in March, the CFTC issued a no-action letter to Phantom Technologies, announcing it would not penalize the company even if it did not register as an intermediary.

Bloomberg pointed out that this exemption measure is one in a series of steps taken to expand the digital asset market in the United States.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.