Looking forward to speaking at the largest securities focused compliance conference tomorrow!
nscp.org/events/2026-nscp-na…
This week we highlight the DC Startup week, BFFS Summit in Denver and proposed SEC Custody rule clarifications.
This week we discuss new proposed rules by the CFTC and the SEC’s proposed rule on custody impacting digital assets.
Mark Dempsey retweeted
Rapidly advancing technologies are transforming our markets at a speed once thought impossible. To keep pace, the @CFTC is engaging directly with the people building, using, and studying them.
Introducing the Frontier Forum Series, a series of public roundtables on the innovative technologies that are transforming American financial markets, spearheaded by our Innovation Task Force.
Mark your calendars for our first symposium, a conversation on artificial intelligence and agentic finance, which will be held on Wednesday, October 28.
.@CFTC Innovation Task Force to Host Frontier Forum Series on Innovative Financial Technologies: cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressRele…
Commissioner Peirce giving opening remarks at the SEC’s roundtable on 24-hour trading. Not a coincidence that the SEC announced an exemption for trading of certain tokenized equities.
Mark Dempsey retweeted
Today, we are taking a significant step forward, within our statutory authority, to bring America’s capital markets into the digital age by facilitating onchain trading of certain tokenized stocks through the "Innovation Exemption." 🇺🇸
sec.gov/files/34-106402-fact…
The SEC today issued an exemption from the definition of “exchange” in the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to certain trading venues that provide the use of automated market makers and liquidity pools and set standards for persons to access trading to buy and sell tokenized NMS stock. An NMS sstock is typically an equity security traded on Nasdaq and NYSE.
There is also a five-year, conditional exemption from the definition of “dealer” in the Exchange Act to certain liquidity providers that provide liquidity in tokenized NMS stock.
This is an unlock for tokenization!
UPDATE: We are extremely confident, pending any last-minute formalities, that we will see large asset managers ARK, BlackRock, and a handful more announce the launch of their tokenized securities products in accordance with the new SEC innovation exemption on tokenization via a transfer agent.
From what we understand these firms have already been approved by the SEC and are doing last-minute checks into the launch of the products, compliance, and getting all of their ducks in a row.
This gives us a sense that we are talking about days, not weeks for this relief.
Given that the CLARITY Act vote is in one week, and we anticipate that to fail to pass, these innovation exemptions for tokenization and perpetual futures are likely to start rolling out shortly thereafter.
From what we understand the regulatory bodies are taking a ‘crawl, walk, run’ approach. This is why we were not able to get any substantial progress on CLARITY after 18 months but have made significant progress across tokenized securities and perpetual futures.
Almost like a ‘depth not breadth’ approach right now at the SEC given what we’ve seen with GENIUS passing and now this exemption, they are very focused on the big sector-specific regulation of digital assets before wide-reaching policy implementation.
All assets are coming onchain and the floodgates are about to open in a major way.
@HesterPeirce @SECPaulSAtkins
UPDATE: Capitol Hill rumor mill is saying the likelihood of CLARITY act passing is near zero.
It's currently 18% on Polymarket & but its really likely more like a 3-5% chance.
From what I understand, everyone in DC somewhat assumes that CLARITY is not going to pass, but they can't publicly say this because the industry has invested tens of millions of dollars and 18 months of resources on trying to get it through.
It’s just not going to happen from what I hear.
There's still no answer to this ethics question for Trump’s dealings in crypto, from the Democrats. Based on that, the odds of passing on prediction markets are probably pretty high and seems like 'No' is potentially interesting.
CLARITY will instead be more or less ‘drafted as separate bills’ focusing on specific sectors of the crypto market.
These could be innovation exemptions, acts, or bills that are focused on stablecoins, tokenization, perpetual futures, and prediction markets coming shortly after CLARITY failed. They prefer take a nuanced approach rather than a massive, wide-reaching crypto bill at this current point.
That is what is much, much more likely to happen from what I understand from folks in DC.
TLDR;
CLARITY likely out but no one will admit it, innovation exemptions are in, and they are far under discussed for their significance to open the doors for all of finance to come oncain.
Here is the recording of our Wednesday panel on RWAs and Capital Markets @NFT_NYC with @iamartikyoul8 and @jhhalaw06art
The recording is up📺🏆 tx:native
Our @NFT_NYC Main Stage conversation on RWAs and Capital Markets starts at 3:31:00 and runs ~30 minutes.
We talked about the infrastructure actually connecting blockchain markets to traditional capital markets, regulatory clarity, programmable compliance, smart tokens, compliant capital formation, tokenized IP & royalties, RWA Super Apps, discoverability, education as infra and 24/7 settlement.
Honored to share the stage with @jhhalaw06art and @mdemp311.
RWA tokenization is no longer an experiment, I t’s becoming market infrastructure.
$MART | Memes About RWA Tokenization
#NFTNYC #RWA #CapitalMarkets #SmartTokens #Tokenization #Edumeme
Watch here : xitter.cf/i/broadcasts/1nxeLMkqg…
Thank you @vtatvio 🔥🔥🔥🏆📺
The SECs Pay to Play rule is overly restrictive and burdensome for investment advisers and I support a risk based rule or approach.
sec.gov/newsroom/press-relea…
















