SEC Unveils Trading Framework for Tokenized Stocks, S&P Acquires OpenZeppelin, DeFi Market Cap Hits $80 Billion

The SEC announced a five-year conditional Innovation Exemption allowing eligible platforms to trade tokenized U.S. equities without standard exchange registration, sending shares of Robinhood up 7.6% and Coinbase up 10.5%. According to Reuters, the temporary framework lets digital asset brokerages and trading platforms support tokenized equity trading while the agency solicits public comments to shape permanent regulatory policies for on-chain securities. Tokenized equities represent traditional corporate shares as digital tokens on a blockchain, potentially enabling 24/7 trading, fractional ownership, and more efficient settlement. The move reduces compliance hurdles and waives full exchange registration requirements for qualifying participants, opening the door for platforms like Coinbase and Robinhood to launch new asset offerings and capture additional trading volume. The rally was further supported by a rebound in the broader cryptocurrency market, with Bitcoin trading up roughly 2% near $78,000. Coinbase remains down 17.7% since the start of the year and trades at $194.63 per share, 49.7% below its 52-week high of $387.27 from October 2025.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has cleared a path for tokenized US stocks, bringing the market closer to 24/7 trading under a five-year innovation exemption that lets eligible platforms trade tokenized US equities through blockchain-based liquidity pools. No platform has been individually approved, and the framework is not yet operational, though trading could start as soon as 30 days out. The exemption covers secondary trading only, not IPOs or issuance of new shares, and tokens must be tied to existing publicly traded equities rather than price trackers, with holders receiving the same economic interest, dividends, voting rights, liquidation rights and shareholder communications as conventional shareholders. Issuing companies get a veto: if an unaffiliated third party such as an exchange wants to tokenize a company's stock, the company receives 30 days to object. Smart contracts must be public and auditable on a public permissionless blockchain, not walled-garden private chains, while traders and wallets are verified and whitelisted for sanctions and AML compliance, and tokenized stocks can trade in crypto-style pairs, including tokenized stock against tokenized stock, a permitted stablecoin, another non-security crypto asset, or tokenized money market funds. The deliberately small pilot has multiple tiers: for the largest Tier one stocks each venue is limited to 75 symbols and 0.25% of each stock's prior month average daily volume, Tier two allows 250 symbols and 2.5% of volume, and repeatedly exceeding a limit triggers a three-month trading pause in that stock. Around-the-clock trading and self-custody are possible but not guaranteed and will be up to the exchange, and the relief exempts only two narrow requirements: venues from registering as conventional exchanges, and qualifying AMM liquidity providers from dealer registration and anti-fraud and market manipulation rules.