How the SEC Went From Crypto Enforcement to Building an On-Chain Wall Street

Two years ago, Wall Street had to infer where blockchain fit inside securities law from enforcement actions. In 2026, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is writing the operating instructions.

On Tuesday (Sept. 1), the SEC proposed a sweeping modernization of the rules governing transfer agents, the firms that maintain securities ownership records, process transfers and connect issuers, investors and other market intermediaries. SEC Chairman Paul Atkins said in a statement that the proposal would update them to reflect current operations, explicitly including the use of “blockchain technology in connection with securities offerings and the transfer of shares.”

The agency’s transfer agent rules have not been substantively updated since the late 1970s and early 1980s. And while the word “blockchain” is attention-grabbing, the words that matter more for the office of the CFO are “official records.” After all, tokenization becomes considerably more interesting when distributed ledgers stop being merely representations sitting beside that machinery and begin becoming part of the machinery itself.

The SEC’s proposal comes on the heels of the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) Tuesday announcement of its own plans to launch ‌tokenized U.K. shares to expand global access to London-listed companies. The LSEG will partner with Payward, parent of crypto exchange Kraken, to explore new ways of trading equities.