SEC's Selway Flags Tokenized Securities and 24/7 Markets

SEC Division of Trading and Markets director Jamie Selway said markets are shifting toward continuous trading, pointing to tokenized securities and perpetual futures as the products reshaping U.S. market structure. He made the remarks at a Baruch College market structure conference in New York on Nov. 13.

"Trading is going 24×7," Selway said, listing new ways for investors to gain market exposure among the research subjects now demanding the agency's attention.

What is the SEC doing with its research capacity?

Selway said access to distinctive data once constrained original research at the agency. Handling ever-growing datasets now requires substantial resources, and researchers are turning to tools driven by what he called "super intelligence."

Josh White, the SEC's chief economist and director of the Division of Economic and Risk Analysis, leads that work. White has restarted DERA's Distinguished Visiting Scholars Program as part of a renewed push to engage academics.

Who has filed under the Innovation Exemption?

The SEC's venue register lists four operators that have submitted notices of intent to use its conditional exemption for tokenized securities venues:

• TSV LLC
• OKXICE TSV
• Kephas Corporation, doing business as Perpetuals.com
• Formation Securities

Submission dates run from Sept. 23 to Nov. 9. The register cautions that inclusion does not establish that an operator qualifies as a tokenized securities venue or satisfies the exemption's conditions.

Operators must publish a public notice at least 30 calendar days before starting operations. Within one business day of publication, they must separately notify the SEC with contact information and the notice's location.

How are tokenized stocks actually trading?

Formation has proposed 24/7 stock trading on Solana with an expected launch in early 2027. Exodus Movement, Forward Industries and Galaxy Digital are expected among its initial securities. In a Nov. 9 announcement, Formation said access would be limited to verified participants, using permissioned automated market maker pools with limits on securities and trading volumes, public disclosures and customer diligence requirements.

Formation licenses trading technology from Orca and plans to work with Superstate and Securitize. It traces the project to Project Open, an April 2025 proposal to the SEC's Crypto Task Force from a coalition including Orca, Superstate and the Solana Policy Institute.

Canton Strategic announced completed tokenized stock trades on Nov. 4. Five North sold issuer-sponsored shares to DRW Cumberland, with Flowdesk supplying liquidity through Tradecraft's permissioned pool on TSV LLC. Fairmint, an SEC-registered transfer agent, moved the shares from a conventional brokerage account to Five North's verified wallet and recorded ownership on the Canton Network. The company did not disclose share counts, execution prices or transaction value.

NYSE's proposed tokenized venue remains subject to regulatory approval. A Nov. 2 announcement named Broadridge, Computershare, Equiniti and Superstate as new transfer-agent partners, joining Securitize and tZERO. NYSE says the design pairs its Pillar matching engine with blockchain-based post-trade systems, offering continuous trading, instant settlement, dollar-sized orders and stablecoin funding, with multiple chains supported for settlement and custody. The venue would accommodate issuer-sponsored securities and third-party custodial tokens, preserving dividends and governance rights, with access via participating broker-dealers.

When do Treasury clearing deadlines bite?

The SEC's implementation guidance sets Dec. 31, 2026 as the compliance date for eligible cash Treasury transactions, with eligible repurchase agreement transactions following on June 30, 2027. Both dates reflect a one-year extension of the original schedule.

Adopted in December 2023, the rules require covered clearing agencies to maintain procedures requiring direct participants to centrally clear eligible secondary-market Treasury transactions to which they are counterparties. The agency has issued relief covering certain inter-affiliate and non-U.S. repo transactions, and staff guidance addresses general collateral repos, circumstances where a clearing agency is unavailable, and transactions that fail to transfer to the clearinghouse.

The first hard test arrives at year-end 2026, when cash Treasury trades must clear centrally.