U.S. SEC Commissioner: Innovation exemption tailored for on-chain stock trading, clearly delineating boundaries with DeFi

Commissioner Hester M. Peirce of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) made a statement regarding the committee's approval of the "innovation exemption."

This exemption is a temporary, conditional arrangement that allows "tokenized securities venues" (TSV) to trade NMS "National Market System" stocks on-chain: TSV provides automated market maker liquidity pools and sets participant admission standards, and is exempt from the definition of "exchange" under the Securities Exchange Act; specific suppliers providing liquidity to TSV are exempt from the definition of "dealer." If issuers do not wish for their stocks to trade on TSV, they can choose to opt-out. The exemption is aimed at U.S. entities, and both existing institutions and new entrants can participate.

Peirce emphasized that the committee does not presuppose that parties relying on this exemption necessarily fall under the definitions of "exchange" or "dealer," but rather hopes to first observe who is using it and how it is being used before making regulatory judgments.

Peirce clearly delineated the boundaries of this order: it is not about decentralized finance. Systems that are driven by automated software and are truly decentralized do not raise fundamental concerns of securities regulation, namely that intermediaries trusted by investors may be foolish, careless, or compromised; investors using permissionless smart contracts for peer-to-peer transactions do not fundamentally require an exemption. TSV is merely one model of on-chain securities trading, and the committee is open to other models, as on-chain trading models that can comply with existing Securities Exchange Act requirements may not require an exemption at all.