Overview
- On Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026 the SEC granted a five‑year conditional 'Innovation Exemption' that allows qualifying Tokenized Securities Venues to operate without registering as national exchanges for the specific on‑chain trading activity covered by the order.
- The exemption permits only tokens that convey full shareholder rights, including dividends and voting, and explicitly excludes synthetic or derivative tokens that only track price exposure.
- Venues must run permissioned automated market makers and liquidity pools on public, permissionless ledgers, use public auditable smart contracts, halt token trading when the underlying stock is halted, and obey SEC limits on listed symbols and trading volume.
- Certain liquidity providers that supply proprietary capital to AMM pools receive conditional relief from dealer registration, and platforms that meet the TSV definition can rely on the exemption after providing notice to the SEC rather than awaiting individual agency approvals.
- The order follows the Senate’s failure to advance the CLARITY Act and is explicitly temporary; the SEC is soliciting public comment, will monitor activity during the five‑year pilot, and says collected data will inform possible durable rulemaking without settling broader jurisdictional questions with the CFTC.