SEC Gives Tokenized Securities Venues Temporary Relief

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued an order granting temporary relief to Tokenized Securities Venues (TSVs), allowing them to trade tokenized National Market System stock using permissioned automated market makers and liquidity pools. The exemption, which is set to expire in five years, was announced on September 17, 2026, just two days after a major crypto market structure bill, the CLARITY Act, collapsed in the Senate.

The SEC's move is seen as a deliberate step forward by Chairman Paul S. Atkins, who framed it as a way to bring America's capital markets into the digital age. The exemption does not require TSVs to register and operate under a heavier regulatory framework, but rather allows them to operate in a permissioned environment while the Commission continues weighing whether further action is needed to support onchain trading more broadly.

The order also grants a separate exemption from the definition of 'dealer' under Section 3(a)(5) of the Exchange Act to liquidity providers supplying tokenized NMS stock into an AMM liquidity pool using their own capital. To qualify, TSVs must meet specific conditions, including being a U.S. entity, permissioning every participant on the platform, and running trading through smart contracts deployed on public, permissionless, auditable blockchains.