Trump administration weighs SEC exemption for tokenized stocks on crypto platforms

The Trump administration is preparing a framework that could let tokenized versions of stocks and other securities trade on crypto platforms, a move that would push one of finance’s most aggressive experiments closer to the U.S. mainstream. The proposal under discussion would give the Securities and Exchange Commission an exemption for tokenized stocks, potentially as soon as this week, creating a direct bridge between Wall Street-style assets and blockchain-based trading venues.

For ordinary investors, the change could open a new way to buy exposure to familiar securities, but not necessarily the same rights that come with a conventional share. Reuters-linked reporting says the SEC is leaning toward allowing tokens that may not be backed by, or even approved by, the public companies whose shares they track. That would raise the prospect of products that resemble stocks in price and branding while lacking voting power, dividends or the clean shareholder protections built into traditional markets. It would also make it harder to know which rules apply when trading moves onto decentralized platforms that sit outside the usual exchange structure.

The policy shift comes after the SEC staff on January 28, 2026 said tokenized securities remain subject to federal securities laws whether ownership is recorded onchain or offchain, while drawing a distinction between issuer-sponsored tokenized securities and third-party tokenized securities. In December, the agency also gave The Depository Trust Company no-action relief for a preliminary tokenization program, and DTCC said the first base version is expected in the second half of 2026. Nasdaq has already filed its own tokenized-securities proposal, which the SEC later published for comment, and that filing said tokenized securities could settle in token form through DTCC.

The market is not waiting for Washington. Robinhood announced tokenized stock and ETF offerings in Europe in 2025 and said it was building a Layer 2 blockchain for tokenized real-world assets. Kraken said its xStocks product surpassed $10 billion in combined centralized and decentralized exchange volume by late 2025 and crossed $25 billion in total transaction volume by February 2026. Those numbers show that tokenized equities have moved from theory to live trading, even as the Republican-led Senate Banking Committee has advanced legislation aimed at clearer crypto rules.

That momentum has sharpened the fault line in Washington. Hester Peirce has publicly backed a more flexible approach, while SIFMA has warned that tokenized securities markets need the investor-protection framework of existing U.S. securities law. Citadel Securities and SIFMA have also raised concerns that broad exemptions could weaken know-your-customer and anti-money-laundering controls. If the SEC grants a broad innovation exemption, regulators may gain a faster lane for financial innovation, but they could also lose visibility into who is issuing these products, what rights they carry and how closely they still resemble the stocks investors think they are buying.