Former New York Governor Cuomo: Tokenization is already ahead of U.S. regulation, and regulatory clarity will determine capital flows

PANews reported on September 25 that former New York Governor and OKX board member Andrew Cuomo wrote in CoinDesk that the development speed of tokenization is exceeding the regulatory and legislative process in the United States. Regulatory clarity is not only a legal and political issue, but will also affect the flow of investment, talent and financial infrastructure. Cuomo said that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) launched an "innovation exemption" on September 17, allowing qualified on-chain trading venues to trade tokenized U.S. stocks under certain conditions, providing a regulatory trial framework for traditional capital markets to further shift to the chain. This exemption is a temporary measure, valid for 5 years, and requires trading venues to adopt a licensing participation mechanism and limit the number and scale of transactions in tokenized stocks. Tokenized stocks must provide holders with the same rights and treatment as corresponding traditional stocks. Smart contracts must be auditable and deployed on public blockchains. When the underlying stocks are suspended from trading, tokenized stocks must also stop trading simultaneously.

Cuomo believes that the SEC's move is to provide a "laboratory" for tokenized innovation within the existing regulatory framework, but temporary exemptions are not permanent regulatory structures. As tokenization further develops, the United States still needs more permanent rules. Cuomo also pointed out that tokenization may change the issuance, transfer, trading, settlement and ownership registration of securities, and is expected to reduce some transaction costs and improve transparency and liquidity; whether the regulatory framework is clear and predictable enough will affect where financial institutions invest, build trading systems and deploy capital.