Welcome to the Monday edition of the Crypto In America newsletter!
What you’ll read: SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce and SEC Crypto Task Force chief counsel Taylor Lindman answer key industry questions about how the agency’s new Innovation Exemption will work. Plus, what to watch this week and the headlines you might have missed.
The first tokenized stock trading venues under the Securities and Exchange Commission’s new Innovation Exemption could begin taking shape as soon as next quarter, Taylor Lindman, chief counsel of the SEC Crypto Task Force, told Crypto In America.
Speaking alongside Commissioner Hester Peirce in a joint interview, Lindman said the agency expects firms to begin publishing required notices outlining their plans to operate in the coming months. The notices would provide the first public indication of which firms intend to enter the new market.
“I think there will be a bit of a lag time between when it came out and when we’ll see the first firms filing their notices,” Lindman said. “That will probably be at some point in the next quarter.”
The SEC issued the five-year conditional exemption last week, allowing eligible platforms to facilitate permissioned trading in tokenized versions of U.S.-listed stocks through automated market makers and liquidity pools on public, permissionless blockchains. The relief is already in effect, but venues must publish notices outlining their operations and notify the SEC within one business day of publication.
“More onchain finance than DeFi”
Despite relying on automated market makers and liquidity pools commonly associated with decentralized finance, the new venues will not operate as true DeFi platforms.
Lindman characterized the model as “more onchain finance than DeFi,” noting that each venue will have a clearly defined person or entity responsible for running it and complying with the exemption’s conditions.
Peirce contrasted that structure with truly decentralized, peer-to-peer finance, which typically lacks a central intermediary to regulate. She said decentralized mechanisms could facilitate direct stock trading, but widespread use would raise broader regulatory questions.
Early Interest Takes Shape
Lindman said the agency is already hearing from firms interested in using the exemption. That interest was also evident at the SEC’s roundtable on 24/7 trading last week, where Wall Street representatives discussed round-the-clock markets and the potential benefits of blockchain-based trading.
At the same time, some in the crypto industry have questioned whether limits on the number of stocks a venue can offer and how much of each stock it can trade are too restrictive to support a commercially viable platform.
Peirce pushed back on those concerns, saying the caps give firms room to do more than test the technology.
“The caps are high enough that people can really do something viable,” Peirce told Crypto In America. “I’m not concerned that they’re so low that people can’t even do more than just a small experiment.”
Peirce framed the restrictions as part of an iterative approach to bringing tokenized equities into a heavily regulated market. She said the SEC can revisit the caps if they become an obstacle but, for now, believes firms can conduct “substantial experimentation” under the exemption.
She also reiterated that the five-year relief is not meant to be permanent, but rather a bridge to longer-term rules. If tokenized securities venues gain traction, she said the SEC could eventually adopt a framework in which additional requirements take effect as venues cross certain trading thresholds, similar to how alternative trading systems, known as ATSs, are regulated today.
With legislative certainty on ice after the Clarity Act failed to advance, Peirce addressed one of the industry’s biggest fears: whether a future SEC could unwind the initiatives the agency is pursuing now.
“If you build good things, later administrations will want to keep them, too,” she said.
More immediately, another potential constraint in the Innovation Exemption is the issuer veto. A venue must give a public company 30 days to object before offering a tokenized version of its shares created by an unaffiliated third party. An objection prevents the tokenized stock from trading on that venue.
Peirce said she does not expect widespread objections to derail the model.
“The issuers that I’ve spoken with, a lot of them are really excited about something like this,” she said, adding that she anticipates “pretty broad excitement” among issuers.
Peirce’s comments also cut against concerns that the exemption could create siloed markets disconnected from traditional trading venues. She noted that issuers value liquidity and said markets are “really good at interlinking different venues.”
“I’m really excited about seeing the tokenized markets interlink with the more traditional markets,” she said. “I think that’ll be positive for our markets as a whole.”
👀 What To Watch This Week
Tuesday
The House is out. The Senate is back.
Wednesday
Georgetown University hosts its annual Financial Markets Quality Conference, featuring Patrick Witt, Tyler Williams, Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN), SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda, Kevin Hassett and Terry Duffy. Crypto In America will be on the ground.
2:30 p.m.: The Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee holds a hearing titled “Small Business, Big Impact: Entrepreneurs at the Heart of Thriving Communities for 250 Years.”
Thursday
The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia hosts its 10th Annual Fintech Conference. The two-day event will examine how the GENIUS Act and other regulatory frameworks are reshaping digital assets, tokenization and their integration into traditional finance.
10:00 a.m.: The Cato Institute hosts a conference titled “Money, Markets, and the American Experiment: 250 Years of Financial Opportunity.”
Friday
10:00 a.m.: The University of Michigan releases its final consumer sentiment survey for September.
Georgetown’s Financial Markets Quality Conference returns September 23
Join Georgetown University’s Psaros Center for its annual Financial Markets Quality Conference, bringing together leaders from finance, government and policy.
This year’s agenda features digital assets, tokenization, prediction markets, private markets and financial regulation, with speakers including CME CEO Terry Duffy, JPMorgan Asset & Wealth Management CEO Mary Callahan Erdoes, Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN), NEC Director Kevin Hassett, former Treasury advisor Tyler Williams and White House Crypto Council Executive Director Patrick Witt.
Location: Wednesday, September 23 | Georgetown University | 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Registration is complimentary, but advance registration is required.
Weekend News Flash
ICYMI: Here are some of the biggest headlines you may have missed since Friday.
Bitcoin topped $87,000: The world’s largest cryptocurrency extended its rally Monday, shrugging off the Clarity Act’s failure and last week’s Fed rate hike.
CFTC launches new technology roundtables: The agency’s Innovation Task Force announced its Frontier Forum series focusing on technologies “transforming American financial markets.” The first roundtable, covering AI and agentic finance, is scheduled for October 28.
Fairshake targets Sherrod Brown: The crypto super PAC plans to spend at least $30 million opposing former Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown (D-OH), who is challenging Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH) in a special election for the remainder of the term formerly held by Vice President JD Vance.
Coinbase opens IPO access to retail investors: Eligible U.S. customers can now request shares in initial public offerings before they begin trading publicly.
Trump announces an “AI Force”: The president also said he plans to appoint an “AI czar” to oversee the rapidly expanding technology.
U.S. diesel prices hit a record: The national average topped $6.50 a gallon for the first time.
Rate-hike bets climb: Markets are pricing in a greater than 50% chance that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates again by October.
Grayscale plans Zcash ETF share split: The firm filed for a 3-for-1 forward split of its Zcash ETF, giving shareholders of record at the close of trading on September 28 two additional shares for every share held.
MSTR leads the Nasdaq-100: Strategy shares surged nearly 48% over the past month, making the stock the index’s top performer over that period.
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