The Securities and Exchange Commission has put the brakes on “new exemptions” that are expected to be filed, pushing back the release of the framework due to concerns from traditional markets and other market participants interested in the expected action, according to Bloomberg. to announce.
The SEC, under Chairman Paul Atkins, he was preparing to release the so-called new exemption as soon as this week.
The plan will create a new regulatory framework to allow digital tokens associated with shares of publicly traded companies to trade on crypto platforms – 24 hours a day, seven days a week – ignoring the barriers to traditional trading.
The release is part of Atkins’ larger “Project Crypto.” nothingwhich aims to loosen existing crypto restrictions in line with the Trump administration’s pro-crypto agenda.
The SEC reportedly leaned toward allowing third-party tokens — digital representations of stocks such as Apple, Nvidia, or Tesla — to be issued and sold without the approval of government companies.
This means that external actors, not just providers, can create blockchain devices to track the value of a company’s share and list them on financial (DeFi) platforms.
These tokens may not have rights to shares such as voting or shares, although the SEC is considering requiring the platform to grant those rights or mitigate risks.
Why is the SEC slow?
The timing of the release of the exemption was pushed back while the agency was evaluating responses from stockbrokers and other traders who met with SEC staff in recent days.
The World Federation of Exchanges – whose members include Nasdaq, Cboe, and CME Group – previously he warned and the SEC in November 2025 letter that the exemption if the exemption can “reduce” the protection of the existing investor and “disrupt” the competition by offering to kill the crypto shortcut rules no market conditions.
The group warned that issuing approvals to stocks before they are fully established “could have a negative impact – potentially serious” on US markets.
The tokenization debate is taking place against a backdrop of competing visions for the future of US markets. Nasdaq, which received SEC approval in March 2026 for its securities policy, is to follow a different version: which stores all transactions on the exchange with all rights of ownership, built on the DTCC blockchain.
The new exemption, in contrast, would allow for a parallel, crypto-native market that operates in line with the existing system — one that would split more of the money of third-party token issuers at the same price.
