The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published a draft proposal on Sept. 1 to overhaul federal rules for transfer agents, taking an initial step toward integrating blockchain technology into the national securities administration system.
A 60-day public comment period will begin once the official document is published in the Federal Register. The SEC’s initiative targets the foundational architecture of securities administration, which has remained virtually untouched for decades. US transfer agent rules have not seen a major overhaul since the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Shifting How Ownership Is Recorded
Stock tokenization has already been operating outside US jurisdiction through custodial or synthetic structures. Under this model, a platform holds the underlying security, while retail investors simply buy claim tokens representing the asset’s value.
Bitget Research chief analyst Ryan Lee emphasized that the SEC proposal targets a far more fundamental issue. The key difference lies not in the token itself, but in how ownership is recognized under the law.
Modernizing transfer agent guidelines would pave the way for legal ownership on a blockchain to be reflected in official corporate records, potentially putting it on equal footing with conventional equity recording systems.
Even so, the proposed framework has clear boundaries. Passing the proposal would not automatically classify on-chain tokens as the underlying securities. Token holders would also not automatically gain corporate voting rights or standard dividend entitlements.
Infrastructure for Growing Demand
The SEC’s move arrives as the market shows strong demand for alternative equity instruments. Crypto exchange Bitget reported $1.16 billion in tokenized stock trading volume between June 2 and July 19, with these non-crypto assets making up 20% of the platform’s total trading volume.
Adoption has surged in a short span. Over the past 30 days, the number of tokenized stock holders across five different platforms jumped 92% to 752,000 users.
While this draft rule for transfer agents does not resolve every legal intricacy surrounding US equity tokenization, it lays the groundwork. As Ryan Lee noted, the overhaul modernizes the plumbing needed to build an authoritative tokenized registry in the future.
Reported via crypto.news.
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Disclaimer: This article is for informational and educational purposes only, not financial advice. Cryptocurrency assets are highly volatile and carry significant risk. Always do your own research (DYOR) and never invest more than you can afford to lose.
