SEC pushes back its exemption for tokenized stocks

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was expected to reach a historic milestone this week. Instead, she chose to hit the brakes. This unexpected postponement raises a central question: is the tokenization of traditional assets really ready to enter American law?

The SEC slows down the tokenization offensive in the United States

The Securities and Exchange Commission has finally decided to postpone its proposed regulatory exemption for tokenized stocks.

According to Bloomberg, the agency was expected to release an experimental framework this week allowing crypto companies to trade digital representations of stocks on blockchain. However, after discussions with stock market officials and several market participants, the American regulator preferred to delay.

The main sticking point concerns “third-party tokens”. Concretely, certain platforms could issue tokenized versions of listed shares without the official authorization of the underlying companies. This scenario greatly worries several financial experts and former American regulators.

However, the problem goes far beyond simple technological innovation. Traditional markets operate around precise rules concerning dividends, voting rights and the keeping of shareholder registers. Therefore, with shares circulating in the form of tokens on several blockchains, the risk of operational fragmentation becomes real.

This caution from the SEC shows a reality often forgotten in the crypto industry: tokenization is not just about “putting an asset on blockchain”. It also involves a profound adaptation of existing legal and financial infrastructures.

However, the potential remains immense. Tokenization promises:

• almost instantaneous settlements;
• a reduction in intermediation costs;
• better global liquidity;
• expanded access to financial markets.

Many American and European banks are already working on these infrastructures. Even Wall Street giants are discreetly accelerating their projects around tokenized assets.

Washington supports crypto… but under strict control

This postponement does not mean that the SEC is turning its back on crypto. Rather, it reflects a desire to structure the integration of digital assets with more rigor.

Commissioner Hester Peirce also clearly pointed out: the proposed exemption only targeted digital representations of securities already listed on traditional markets. Nothing synthetic, nothing speculative. A deliberately narrow perimeter, which she considers poorly understood in the public debate.

This precision is not trivial. Indeed, for several months, the American authorities have been seeking a delicate balance between openness to innovation and regulatory control. The approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs last year had already marked a first turning point: for the first time, a crypto product entered traditional institutional circuits.

Meanwhile, Congress is moving forward on another front. With the ARMA project, several elected officials want to enshrine in law a federal strategic reserve of bitcoin, kept over the long term by the American Treasury. The message is clear: Washington no longer considers bitcoin as a speculative curiosity, but as a state asset in its own right.

The paradox is only apparent. The United States recognizes the strategic value of bitcoin, while refusing to open the doors to tokenization too quickly without solid safeguards. After the resounding bankruptcies and scandals that have shaken the sector since 2022, regulators want to prevent hasty adoption from weakening the hard-won confidence of institutional investors.

The logic of the SEC is actually simple: test, frame, then expand. This postponement marks a necessary pause in the race for tokenization, less an ideological step back than a signal of caution in the face of a technology that regulations are still struggling to keep up with.