The SEC has clarified its regulatory approach to tokenized securities through coordinated guidance from its Corporation Finance, Investment Management, and Trading and Markets divisions.
The core message is that the underlying legal status of a security is unchanged by its tokenization. These onchain assets fall under the SEC’s existing remit and must comply with established securities regulations.
The agency formally defined the term, stating a tokenized security is an instrument under federal law that is formatted as a crypto asset, with ownership recorded on a crypto network.
This effort is part of the Commission’s wider project to bring clarity to the crypto asset market. Chair Atkins previously highlighted the need for a “token taxonomy” to distinguish asset types.
The guidance emerges as the US Congress considers a market structure bill to define regulatory roles for the SEC and CFTC. Worldwide, exchanges are concurrently developing tokenized securities products.
