SEC Delays Tokenized Securities Exemption Amid White House Pressure

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has delayed its proposal to create an 'innovation exemption' for tokenized securities, marking the second delay in three months.

The exemption would have allowed domestic crypto firms to issue, custody, and trade tokenized equities, money-market funds, Treasuries, and certain on-chain bond products without full Securities Act and Exchange Act registration.

The cancellation of the proposal signals that integrating traditional assets onto distributed ledgers is not yet ready for expedited implementation, with obstacles rooted in a collision between political strategy and institutional lobbying.

White House officials intervened to prevent the SEC's unilateral exemption from complicating ongoing congressional negotiations regarding the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, while the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) pushed back against sweeping market-structure changes.