"Milestone Week for 'Tokenized Securities': Official Endorsements from the SEC and Nasdaq, BlackRock's 'Major Breakthrough,' and the First Public Company Voluntarily 'Tokenizing Shares'"

"Milestone Week for 'Tokenized Securities': Official Endorsements from the SEC and Nasdaq, BlackRock's 'Major Breakthrough,' and the First Public Company Voluntarily 'Tokenizing Shares'"

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Tokenized securities have achieved a historic breakthrough in the U.S. capital markets: from a fundamental regulatory shift, to concrete actions by leading institutions, and to the proactive attempts by the first listed company, an entirely new capital market landscape is rapidly taking shape.

This week, the pace of integration between traditional finance and blockchain technology has accelerated significantly. U.S. SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins, at the OECD meeting in Paris, announced a farewell to the previous tough enforcement stance, turning to support digital asset innovation and launching a comprehensive "crypto initiative" to modernize securities regulation. He explicitly stated that "most crypto tokens are not securities" and pledged to provide clear guidance for on-chain fundraising.

Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman publicly pledged to bring tokenization technology to the core stock market, not just limit it to OTC trading. Meanwhile, the world's largest asset manager BlackRock is exploring converting ETFs into blockchain tokens, and its $2 billion tokenized money market fund BUIDL has already demonstrated market demand. Most significantly, Galaxy Digital has become the first listed company to proactively tokenize SEC-registered stock on a blockchain.

Analysts believe these moves mark a key inflection point for Wall Street's infrastructure migration to blockchain, with advantages such as 24-hour trading, instant settlement, and global liquidity moving from concept to reality. As Goldman Sachs trader Mark Wilson put it:

Although there is still much regulatory work to be done, the possibility of "U.S. capital markets on chain" is becoming increasingly clear.

SEC’s Major Policy Shift: From "Enforcement-Led Regulation" to "Innovation Support"

According to a reported article, Chairman Atkins’ speech in Paris signaled a fundamental change in U.S. digital asset regulation. He strongly criticized previous policies for "weaponizing investigations, subpoenas, and enforcement powers to suppress the crypto industry," and declared "that chapter belongs to history."

The new "crypto initiative" will proceed according to the blueprint devised by the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets for digital assets, with three core objectives:

First, provide certainty for the securities status of crypto assets, clearly delineating the regulatory boundary that "most crypto tokens are not securities";

Second, ensure entrepreneurs can raise funds on-chain without fearing legal risks;

Third, allow innovative "super app" trading platforms to offer multiple services such as trading, lending, and staking under a single regulatory framework.

Atkins predicted that on-chain capital markets and "AI agent finance" are coming, where AI agents will execute trades and allocate capital at speeds beyond human capability, with securities compliance encoded into the software. He emphasized the government’s responsibility to "set common-sense guardrails while eliminating regulatory obstacles that stifle innovation."

Nasdaq Core Market Transformation: Tokenization Enters the Main Arena

According to a reported article, Nasdaq is moving tokenization from experimental margins to core business. CEO Friedman made it clear that stock tokenization will happen "in the core market," trading on the same system as traditional stocks, not relegated to a "subsidiary OTC market."

Trading time reforms are advancing simultaneously; Nasdaq has announced a move toward a "24×5" model, with the ultimate goal of fully 24/7 trading. Friedman cited Nasdaq 100 index futures’ existing 24-hour trading as an example, claiming it "makes perfect sense" for underlying stocks to have the same liquidity.

On digital asset strategy, Nasdaq adopts a "regulation-first" stance, insisting on "investor protection as priority." Friedman observed a regulatory convergence in Washington, believing this creates opportunities for traditional financial institutions. Once the regulatory pathway is clear, Nasdaq will work with institutional clients to introduce compliant crypto asset and tokenized securities services.

To address the issue of IPO procedures being overly complex and keeping companies private for too long, Nasdaq is promoting several reforms:

Simplifying disclosure requirements: Stripping away excessive information and returning to core disclosures

Promoting innovative listing paths: Proactively promoting direct listings with fundraising functionality and improving the SPAC model

Exploring tokenized IPOs: Drawing an analogy between ICOs and "tokenized direct listings," incorporating them into a compliant market framework

BlackRock ETF Tokenization: Blockchain Restructures Wall Street’s Core Products

On September 12, according to Bloomberg, BlackRock is studying tokenizing ETFs linked to stocks and other real-world assets. This initiative could fundamentally change how one of Wall Street’s most important investment products operates.

BlackRock already has success in digital assets. Its tokenized money market fund BUIDL, launched in 2024, has grown beyond $2 billion, and its spot Bitcoin ETF has also seen great success.

ETF tokenization will bring three core changes:

Extended trading hours: Breaking Wall Street’s conventional trading time limitations for 24-hour trading;

Global access: U.S. financial products will be more accessible to overseas investors;

New collateral usages: Creating new use cases as collateral within crypto networks.

Supporters believe blockchain migration makes instant settlement, share splitting, and more possible, and the flexible ETF design makes it the ideal testing ground for such transformation.

CEO Larry Fink’s position further confirms BlackRock’s commitment: "Every financial asset can be tokenized," a view reiterated in his 2025 annual letter to investors.

However, this transformation faces major technological and regulatory challenges. Currently, ETFs are settled through Wall Street clearinghouses, while blockchain transactions are instant and continuous—coordinating these systems poses complex problems for regulators and custodians.

Nonetheless, under the Trump-era, the regulatory environment is becoming looser, with policymakers more open to allowing companies to test blockchain-based market projects in controlled settings.

Galaxy Digital as Pioneer: The First Public Company to Proactively Tokenize Shares

More significantly, Galaxy Digital Holdings has become the first listed U.S. company to directly tokenize SEC-registered stock on a blockchain. Through the Superstate Opening Bell platform, the company allows shareholders to tokenize their Class A common shares on the Solana network.

Galaxy's stock tokenization offers the following features:

  • 24/7 trading potential: Enabling round-the-clock market trading
  • Near-instant settlement: Dramatically improving transaction efficiency
  • Full compliance: Tokenized shares are legally identical to traditional equity
  • Controlled access: Only KYC-verified investors can participate, with the ability to hold and transfer tokens directly in crypto wallets

Galaxy and Superstate are exploring methods for trading tokenized shares via automated market makers (AMMs) while maintaining regulatory compliance. Stocks listed on Opening Bell, including Galaxy itself, may ultimately circulate across AMMs and other decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms.

The company describes this as "the first step in the capital markets revolution," aiming to "build a faster, more efficient, more inclusive, and safer method for value transfer, storage, and creation for the global economy."

Goldman Sachs Trader: The Trend Toward Blockchain Capital Markets Is Clearer

Goldman Sachs trader Mark Wilson paid special attention to tokenized securities in this week’s market review. He noted that Galaxy Digital’s stock tokenization is the first in the U.S., "and I’m pretty sure it’s the first in the world."

Wilson believes this move could have "significant potential" impacts on the structure of capital markets. Coupled with Nasdaq’s investment in Gemini and BlackRock’s tokenized ETF ambitions, he observes "the possibility of blockchain-powered capital markets is becoming increasingly clear."

Wilson concluded that although "significant regulatory work remains," the overall trend indicates a growing possibility of legacy financial infrastructure migrating to blockchain.

Analysis suggests this series of developments shows that tokenized securities are moving from proof of concept to mainstream application, with the active participation of Wall Street’s core institutions laying the groundwork for large-scale adoption of this technology.

Risk Warning and DisclaimerMarkets are risky, and investments require caution. This article does not constitute personal investment advice, nor does it take into account the particular investment objectives, financial circumstances, or needs of any individual user. Users should consider whether any opinions, views, or conclusions stated here fit their own circumstances. All investments made based on this content are at your own risk. ```