U.S. SEC Commissioner Proposes Cautious Approach to Tokenized Securities Innovation Exemption

ChainCatcher report: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Commissioner Hester M. Peirce has written that a “创新豁免” (innovation exemption) initiative for tokenized securities has been launched, permitting limited trading and technological experiments with certain tokenized securities. This exemption is more cautious than the industry’s proposed “full exemption.” She suggests exploring whether different models of tokenizing various types of securities should be permitted under the innovation exemption framework, and whether issuer consent should be required before third parties issue tokenized versions of their shares—aiming to foster technological innovation while preventing regulatory arbitrage and preserving core investor protections. Hester M. Peirce also emphasized that regulators should not overreach in private capital allocation. The SEC is currently evaluating several key issues, including: whether existing disclosure requirements are sufficient to address the ownership structure of tokenized securities; the disclosure obligations of brokers and clearing agencies in the issuance of tokenized securities; the compatibility of atomic settlement with the current T+1 settlement rule; and the applicability of regulatory authority in environments with no intermediaries or novel intermediary structures.