Tokenization Really Might Be Now: What To Expect From The SEC This Week

Research evidence excerpt

Tokenization Really Might Be Now: What To Expect From The SEC This Week

TD Securities (USA) LLC POLICY NOTE

May 19, 2026

■WRG Financial Services Tokenization Really Might Be Now: What To

Expect From The SEC This Week

Jaret Seiberg THE TD COWEN INSIGHT

202 868 5313

The SEC this week is expected to issue the exemptive relief needed for tokenized equity

jaret.seiberg@tdsecurities.com

trading. As we wrote in our Ahead of the Curve report in February, this is the expected

outcome. We will be watching for the duration of the exemptive relief and how it handles

order execution and data reporting. We also will be watching if tokenized options prove more

successful than tokenized equity shares.

What Is Happening

The SEC this week is expected to issue exemptive relief to enable tokenized stock trading.

Our View

■We have been expecting this for the last several months. As wrote in our collaborative

Ahead of the Curve report with our US and Canada colleagues in February, we did not

expect the SEC to wait for Congress to enact legislation.

■The SEC will use its so-called sandbox authority, which is designed to encourage innovation.

It means there are likely to be limits on tokenization including an expiration date for the

exemptive relief. We would not view these as problematic. Our expectation is that after a

few years the SEC will move to make these programs permanent. That could come as part

of the implementation of the Clarity Act if Congress enacts the crypto market structure bill

in 2026 or 2027.

■We do not expect the SEC to require platforms that are tokenizing stocks to get permission

from the issuers. We realize this issue is getting attention today. Our view is that the SEC

was never likely to impose such a requirement as creating tokens to represent existing