Nasdaq pushes SEC to greenlight tokenized stock trading

Nasdaq is asking the ￰0￱ and Exchange Commission to allow fully regulated trading of tokenized stocks directly on its exchange, according to a request filed on Monday, that outlines a plan that could embed blockchain inside the core of American equity markets as part of the actual trading ￰1￱ approved, this would be the first time crypto technology directly powers the buying and selling of real, regulated stocks in the ￰2￱ request includes a proposed rule change that would officially redefine what counts as a “security.” Nasdaq wants the SEC to approve this change so that tokenized shares, digital replicas of real stocks, can be treated the same way as traditional ￰3￱ before anything happens, the SEC must open the plan up for public comment and then make a final ￰4￱ outlines how tokenized stocks would be traded Nasdaq’s filing details exactly how these tokenized assets would work.

First, they would be clearly labeled so there’s no confusion for any party involved in clearing and ￰5￱ Depository Trust Company, which handles that part of the process, would be responsible for executing those ￰6￱ assets wouldn’t be treated like second-class ￰7￱ made it clear that once listed, a tokenized share would have the same execution priority, shareholder rights, and documentation standards as the original security it ￰8￱ isn’t a minor tweak. Nasdaq’s proposal goes into the heart of how the market works: how stocks are created, how they’re traded, and how they settle. That’s a direct shot at Wall Street’s legacy infrastructure, which still relies on slow batch processing and after-hours ￰9￱ also flagged a problem that’s been brewing: companies aren’t in control when their shares are tokenized by outsiders.

“Tokenizing securities should not occur in a manner that deprives issuers of their ability to determine where and how their shares trade,” Nasdaq ￰10￱ they admitted that under current rules, the exchange can’t give those issuers the power to approve or reject tokenization. That’s already created friction, like when Robinhood started offering OpenAI tokenized ￰11￱ quickly said they never signed off on it, and that those tokens didn’t count as real ￰12￱ leadership, Wall Street, and legacy firms react This all comes asPaul Atkins, the new SEC chair under President Donald Trump, is pushing the agency to write new rules around crypto assets and clarify when they’re considered ￰13￱ Commissioner Hester Peirce said last month, “We are eager to work with tokenization companies,” but warned that they must be fully transparent about what kind of asset is being ￰14￱ now, tokenized stocks are digital representations.

They’re not the actual stock ￰15￱ they’ve been pitched as ways to give foreign investors access to U. S. equities, support fractional investing, and offer 24/7 ￰16￱ traditional markets that close at 4 ￰17￱ take holidays off, tokenized shares could, in theory, trade around the clock. That’s because they settle almost instantly and cut out middlemen like brokers and ￰18￱ asset managers like BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, and KKR have already started experimenting with tokenization, but they’ve been playing it safe.

They’re still going through broker-dealers and haven’t gone ￰19￱ wants to skip the ￰20￱ filing shows they’re trying to bring crypto-native architecture into Wall Street’s official ￰21￱ skepticism ￰22￱ said in a recent note that the industry hasn’t fully embraced tokenized assets ￰23￱ of the interest is still coming from crypto-first firms, not mainstream banks If you're reading this, you’re already ￰24￱ there with our newsletter .