SEC Names Three Firms Planning Tokenized Stock Trading Venues

• TSV LLC, OKXICE and Kephas Corp. plan blockchain-based stock trading venues, but none has begun trading under the SEC exemption.
• The SEC requires firms to publish detailed notices 30 days before launch, with additional conditions for trading third-party tokenized stocks.
• The five-year exemption runs through September 17, 2031, with a 0.25% average daily volume limit and a 75-symbol cap.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has named three firms planning tokenized securities trading venues under its September innovation exemption. TSV LLC, OKXICE and Kephas Corp. notified the agency of their intentions, but none has begun trading. The SEC stressed that appearing on its list does not confirm compliance with the exemption’s requirements.

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Three Firms Plan Different Blockchain Trading Venues

TSV LLC, co-owned by Obsidian Systems co-founders Ali Abrar and Ryan Trinkle, plans to operate on Canton Network. Trinkle also serves on the Canton Foundation board. The company says authorized transfer agents will tokenize shares, with trades paired against Circle’s USDC and Brale’s SBC stablecoins.

OKXICE, a joint venture between crypto exchange OKX and Intercontinental Exchange, plans to use X Layer, OKX’s Ethereum Layer 2 network. Its notice listed 63 stocks, including Nvidia, Tesla and Apple, in Uniswap v4 pools.

Meanwhile, Kephas Corp., the U.S. subsidiary of Perpetuals Group, plans to operate on Kronos X Public. Founder Patrick Gruhn, formerly head of FTX Europe, leads the company. Its proposed venue would use permissioned trading pools pairing stocks with USDC.

SEC Exemption Sets Conditions Before Trading Begins

The SEC introduced its five-year innovation exemption on September 17, 2026. Firms must publish a detailed notice at least 30 calendar days before operating and notify the agency within one business day.

SEC staff also clarified that venues should publish notices once their operations and access standards are ready for production. For third-party tokenized stocks, venues must wait until the issuer’s 30-day objection period ends without an objection before trading.

The exemption also limits activity in the most liquid stocks to 0.25% of average daily volume per venue and caps listings at 75 symbols. The exemption runs through September 17, 2031. The SEC emphasized that its staff guidance carries no legal force and does not represent a Commission decision. The agency is accepting public comments under file number 4-927.