NASDAQ Seeks Nod From U.S. SEC to Tokenize Stocks

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NASDAQ, the U.S. speech wherever the tech sector's biggest names database their stocks, is seeking to enactment stocks connected the blockchain, asking the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission connected Monday to bless its effort adjacent arsenic others successful the securities satellite are sprinting toward the aforesaid tokenization goal.

If the SEC filing is approved, the speech would fto customers take either the accepted way for trading equities oregon to bash truthful on-chain with tokenized stocks — an enactment that would beryllium treated with the aforesaid precedence arsenic the bequest method.

"The Exchange believes the markets tin usage tokenization portion continuing to supply the benefits and protections of the nationalist marketplace system," NASDAQ contended successful its filing, suggesting that the tokenized assets should beryllium traded "in regulated markets, namely nationalist securities exchanges, alternate trading systems, and astatine [Financial Industry Regulatory Authority] regulated broker-dealers."

The determination by NASDAQ follows an effort by integer brokerage Robinhood to issue banal tokens for European customers successful July, giving entree to immoderate 200 U.S. stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Bringing equities and different real-world assets onto blockchain rails has been among the astir sizzling of the digital-asset world's innovations, and the contention has been increasing fierce for some accepted concern names and crypto natives to marque moves.

Several crypto exchanges, specified arsenic Bybit, Kraken and Gemini, person been making the leap. But TradFi behemoth NASDAQ — location of the listings for Apple, Google genitor Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft and different exertion mainstays — is peculiarly significant.

Read More: Tokenized Stocks Aren’t Working (Yet)

For its part, NASDAQ would dainty this concern conscionable similar regular banal trading, it said, and person the trading of tokens wide and settee done the Depository Trust Co.

"The specified information that an bid contains tokenized securities oregon indicates a penchant to wide and settee securities successful token signifier shall not impact the precedence successful which the Exchange executes that order," according to NASDAQ's projected alteration with the SEC. The already-digital transactions of banal would — nether this caller strategy — beryllium logged via integer ledger, which "presents caller capabilities by which to grounds grounds of securities ownership and transactions."

Those buying the tokens would summation afloat rights to the associated shares of stock, including voting and liquidation rights.

NASDAQ's caller tokenized trading — besides offering exchange-traded products, specified arsenic ETFs — would statesman "once the requisite infrastructure and post-trade colony services person been established by" DTC, which is moving connected them, the institution said.

SEC Chairman Paul Atkins has made it wide that tokenization of assets is simply a large precedence for the agency, and the regulator gathered a panel successful its bid of crypto roundtables earlier this twelvemonth to research it. A major component of Atkins' caller Project Crypto propulsion astatine the bureau is to wide a way for the world's starring tokenized securities market.

"This question of securities from off-chain to on-chain systems is akin to the modulation of audio recordings from analog vinyl records to cassette tapes to integer bundle decades ago," Atkins said successful May 12 remarks astatine the agency. "The migration to on-chain securities has the imaginable to remodel aspects of the securities marketplace by enabling wholly caller methods of issuing, trading, owning, and utilizing securities."

Read More: SEC, CFTC Chiefs Say Crypto Turf Wars Over arsenic Agencies Move Ahead connected Joint Work

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