Wall Street giants oppose regulatory exemptions for tokenized securities

Foresight News reports that, according to CoinDesk, five Wall Street giants including SIFMA (Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association), Cahill Gordon & Reindel, Citadel, and JPMorgan met with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Crypto Task Force this Tuesday. These institutions advocate that tokenized securities should be regulated under existing federal securities laws rather than establishing a separate regulatory framework. During the meeting, they warned that allowing tokenized assets to be traded under more relaxed standards could undermine investor protection and market structure rules. They believe that “tokenization changes the market infrastructure, not the underlying economic substance of securities,” and therefore should not be exempt solely because they are traded on the blockchain. Additionally, Wall Street institutions urged the SEC to rely on formal rulemaking procedures rather than informal staff guidance or broad exemptions. This meeting comes as market discussions on DeFi regulation and 24/7 trading heat up, reflecting a consensus between regulators and traditional financial giants that “the essence of tokenized securities remains securities.”