U.S. SEC begins prepping for around-the-clock trading that crypto treats as the norm
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission dug into plans for around-the-clock trading in an event on the same morning it approved tokenized securities.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is delving into its plans to bring its traditional systems into the kind of 24-hour, everyday timeline native to the crypto sector, hosting a Thursday roundtable at its Washington headquarters just an hour after the agency issued its order to approve tokenized securities trading.
"We're moving of course to a new day — and night," Paul Atkins told the crowd of securities lawyers, saying that tradeable events aren't constrained to market hours and expanding will mean "investors will be able to react more quickly to events."
Amid the discussion on expanding hours for traditional firms, the SEC chairman also raised the agency's new move on tokenization. The regulator ordered a new type of exemption be available to firms wanting to open tokenized securities trading, granting a five-year period in which the firms won't have to worry about the overhang of heavy securities regulation.
Moving the U.S. securities markets beyond their weekday, daytime tradition will involve significant adjustments, Atkins and other SEC commissioners admitted, though Commissioner Hester Peirce noted, "Crypto markets certainly don't sleep."