The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has named three firms planning to operate tokenized securities venues (TSVs) under its innovation exemption. The agency confirmed that none of the firms has begun trading and stressed that inclusion on the list does not confirm compliance with the exemption’s conditions.
TSV LLC, co-owned by Obsidian Systems co-founders Ali Abrar and Ryan Trinkle, plans to operate on the Canton Network. The company says authorized transfer agents will tokenize shares, with trades paired against Circle’s USDC and Brale’s SBC stablecoins. Trinkle also serves on the Canton Foundation board.
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. 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.
The SEC’s five-year innovation exemption began on September 17, 2026 and runs through September 17, 2031. Firms must publish a detailed notice at least 30 days before operating and notify the agency within one business day. 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 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.
