Blockchain News: Could the SEC Make Blockchain-Ledgered Records the Stock Record?

Key Insights:

• Blockchain news: The US SEC proposes blockchain-based ownership records for tokenized stocks.
• The plan could reduce duplicate records and reconciliation issues.
• Transfer agents would still maintain required control and transfer records.

The latest blockchain news features the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which proposed to modernize its long-standing transfer-agent rules earlier this September.

The SEC’s press release announced that the update would “reflect transfer agents’ current processes and operations, including the use of … blockchain technology in connection with securities offerings and the transfer of shares.”

Blockchain News: On-Chain Registers and Tokenized Stocks

Under the draft rule, a transfer agent could maintain its master securityholder file on a blockchain. The SEC’s proposal would allow electronic databases, including blockchain ledgers, to serve as the official record of securities ownership.

In practical terms, this would allow a properly governed blockchain ledger to replace the parallel off-chain shareholder register that tokenized stocks now maintain. If approved, “a blockchain could become the ‘master security file,’ replacing the parallel off-chain ownership records that tokenized securities often still rely on today.”