The Securities and Exchange Commission has delayed a plan to grant exemptions for crypto exchanges to trade real-world token assets.
The securities regulator was preparing to release its “innovation exemption” for tokenized stocks as early as this week, and a draft plan had been prepared and reviewed by staff.
However, the timeline has since been pushed back as the SEC evaluates feedback from exchange officials and other market participants, Bloomberg reported Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The exemption would have allowed trading of tokenized stocks on decentralized exchanges that do not have the support or consent of the public companies whose shares they track.
Experts weigh the pros and cons
However, the SEC noted that allowing third-party token trading has raised concerns. Several former regulators reportedly said it was unclear how companies could meet the same rights criteria as tokens traded on third-party blockchains.
Bloomberg also reported that public companies could face uncertainties about their normal practices, such as issuing dividends and counting shareholder votes. There were also concerns that the tokens would end up in the hands of bad actors overseas.
SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce said earlier this week that any exemption would be “limited in scope” by only allowing “digital representations of the same underlying equity security that an investor could purchase in the secondary market today.”
“The SEC deserves a lot of credit for diligently preparing for the legislation and moving quickly under its current authority to provide clarity to the markets in the adoption of tokenization in the capital markets,” Coinbase General Counsel Paul Grewal said Saturday.
THANKS @HesterPeirce. @Coinbase has long supported previously published SEC staff thoughtful comments on tokenization.
The SEC already has the authority it needs to enable innovation in the securities markets, particularly for real and tokenized on-chain NMS stocks that…
– Paul Grewal (@iampaulgrewal) May 23, 2026
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Meanwhile, Ryan Yoon, director of Tiger Research, warned that allowing third-party trading of tokenized stocks could lead to liquidity risk and revenue fragmentation. This decision could create “price gaps between platforms”, in addition to increasing slippage on large orders and, ultimately, “degrade the overall efficiency of the market”, he said.
He added that financial revenues that should flow to U.S. domestic exchanges could instead be shifted overseas. Benefits of the move could include faster settlement, fractional ownership, lower transaction costs, the ability to trade 24/7, and access to popular U.S. stocks for non-US citizens.
Crypto Markets Rebound on Trump Deal
Crypto markets today recovered from Saturday’s slide following the latest announcement from US President Donald Trump, who said on Truth Social that a deal had been “extensively negotiated, subject to finalization between the United States of America, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the various other countries.”
The agreement would include the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and “the final aspects and details of the agreement are currently being discussed and will be announced shortly”, he added.
Bitcoin recovered to $77,000 in early trading on Sunday after falling to a five-week low of $74,200 on Saturday.
