SEC Grants Temporary Exemption for Tokenised NMS Stock Trading Venues

Key points

The SEC issued an order on 17 September 2026 granting temporary, conditional exemptive relief to Tokenized Securities Venues (TSVs) from the definition of 'exchange' under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
The relief is specifically scoped to facilitate trading in tokenised NMS (National Market System) stocks, a defined category of US-listed equities.
TSVs operating under this exemption are not required to register as exchanges, reducing the immediate regulatory burden compared with the full exchange framework.
The SEC simultaneously issued a request for public comment alongside the exemption order, indicating the current relief is transitional rather than a final regulatory position.
The conditional and temporary structure of the relief means the operational window it creates is subject to change as the rulemaking process progresses.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued an order granting temporary, conditional exemptive relief to what it calls Tokenized Securities Venues (TSVs), freeing them from the statutory definition of “exchange” under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The relief is designed to facilitate trading in tokenised National Market System (NMS) stocks without requiring TSVs to register as full exchanges under the existing framework. Alongside the exemption order, the SEC has opened a request for public comment, signalling that the current relief is a bridge rather than a permanent settlement of the regulatory question.

For operators, the practical effect is that a new category of venue can now handle tokenised equity trading in the US under conditional terms, without needing to satisfy the full exchange registration regime. That lowers the immediate compliance burden for platforms pursuing this market, but the conditionality and the accompanying comment request suggest the SEC is using this period to gather evidence before setting durable rules. The temporary nature of the relief means firms building on this basis should plan for the framework to evolve, possibly materially, once the comment process concludes.

What this means

compliance/legal/risk: Firms considering TSV structures should map every condition attached to this exemption against their current operating model now, since conditional relief that later tightens or lapses mid-build is a materially different risk from a permanent rule.
regulatory & policy affairs: Participating in the comment process is a live opportunity to shape what follows this temporary order; assumptions baked into earlier exchange-registration planning may need stress-testing against whatever permanent framework the SEC signals it is moving toward.
founder & strategy: Runway on this exemption is finite and conditioned, so any product roadmap premised on TSV status should carry a scenario in which the permanent rule arrives on a shorter timeline or with narrower scope than the current relief suggests.
infrastructure & platform: Building to TSV requirements rather than full exchange standards may accelerate time-to-market, but architecture choices made now should preserve optionality for a more stringent regime, given that the SEC has explicitly deferred its final position to a later rulemaking.

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SEC Grants Temporary Exemption for Tokenised NMS Stock Trading Venues

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