SEC Moves to Let Blockchain Ledgers Serve as Official Securities Ownership Records

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The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is moving to revise its rules to recognize blockchain ledgers as official records of securities ownership. The change could reshape the tokenized securities market by replacing a structure in which on-chain records and traditional shareholder registers are maintained in parallel.

CoinDesk reported on September 10 that the SEC last week unveiled a proposal to update transfer-agent rules that have been in place for about 50 years. If adopted, the changes would allow electronic databases, including blockchain ledgers, to qualify as the “master securityholder file,” the official ledger of securities ownership.