SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce: Currently drafting a narrower exemption provision for tokenized securities innovation

Hester Peirce, a commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, stated at the Investor Advisory Committee (IAC) meeting on Thursday that the SEC is developing innovative exemption provisions for tokenized securities, but the scope will be narrower than previously discussed exemption proposals.

The Investor Advisory Committee IAC had previously recommended that the SEC should not adopt a comprehensive exemption approach to avoid undermining investor protections, including core mechanisms such as ownership disclosure, intermediary regulation, and order protection. Instead, it suggested targeted reforms through a rule-by-rule approach, which must undergo a public consultation process.

SEC Chairman Paul Atkins stated at the same meeting that the commission expects to soon discuss innovative exemptions in order to seek to establish a timeline for a long-term regulatory framework. Tokenized securities currently must fully comply with U.S. federal securities laws, and the innovative exemption mechanism aims to allow controlled experiments with more advanced trading models while maintaining necessary investor protections.