After Congress killed its landmark crypto bill, the SEC unlocked the $77 trillion US stock market through tokenization

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has opened a five-year pathway for regulated US stocks to trade on blockchain-native venues.

The Innovation Exemption came two days after the Senate failed to advance the CLARITY Act, a broad crypto market-structure bill that sought to establish statutory rules for digital assets and clarify regulatory responsibilities. The procedural vote failed 49-50, short of the 60 votes needed to move it forward.

That failure left the crypto industry without a comprehensive market-structure framework and put greater weight on what regulators can do under existing law.

SEC Chair Paul Atkins explicitly tied the Sept. 17 action to the stalled legislation, saying the agency was moving “within its statutory authority” to facilitate on-chain trading of certain tokenized stocks.

This move opens the $77 trillion US stock market to crypto-style trading. However, the decision addresses a narrower question of how regulated stocks can trade through blockchain infrastructure. It also pushes US policy closer to a market already developing offshore, where crypto companies are offering tokenized equities that can move beyond conventional exchange hours.

SEC gives on-chain venues a five-year test