The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission published remarks by Acting Chairman Mark T. Uyeda at the Crypto Task Force’s roundtable on crypto trading, outlining regulatory frictions for tokenized securities and signalling interest in a time-limited, conditional exemptive relief framework for both registrants and non-registrants while the Commission develops a longer-term approach. Uyeda contrasted state-by-state money-transmitter style oversight with the possibility of a more efficient federal framework, under which firms might prefer to offer trading in tokenized securities and non-security crypto assets under a single SEC licence rather than operate under multiple state licences. He highlighted challenges under existing securities rules for offering tokenized securities, including that national securities exchanges can only list registered securities while most tokenized securities currently are unregistered, and that compliance with Rule 611 (the order protection rule) may be impracticable for securities trading in both tokenized and non-tokenized formats across on-chain and off-chain markets. The remarks also pointed to the vertically integrated model of many crypto trading platforms, and noted that federal securities laws were not designed for blockchain- and smart-contract-based performance of transfer agent, exchange, and clearing functions. Market participants developing new ways to trade securities using blockchain technology were encouraged to provide input on where exemptive relief may be appropriate.

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