SEC Grants Five-Year Exemption for Tokenized Stock Trading

The Securities and Exchange Commission unveiled its long-awaited Innovation Exemption, freeing platforms that trade blockchain-based stocks from many rules binding Nasdaq and the NYSE for five years. Liquidity providers get matching relief from dealer registration requirements.

Platforms must notify companies before listing tokenized versions of their shares and are barred from proceeding if the issuer objects. Synthetic tokens offering exposure through derivatives stay prohibited, and tokenized equities must carry identical dividend and voting rights.

Chair Paul Atkins framed it as resolving challenges that kept responsible innovation from taking root domestically while preserving investor protections. The agency reasoned that platforms faced substantial compliance difficulty without potentially burdensome changes to how their businesses operate.

Coinbase has signalled plans to launch stateside once rules permit, while Robinhood and Kraken already offer such products overseas. The exemption lands days after the Senate failed to advance market structure legislation, and could eventually pit crypto venues against E*Trade and Charles Schwab.

CFTC Extends No-Action Relief to Crypto Software Developers

The CFTC issued a no-action position allowing qualifying software developers to connect users with regulated derivatives markets without registering as introducing brokers. The framework expands relief first granted to Phantom in March, provided developers meet disclosure, policy, and procedural requirements.

A footnote leaves room for the position to extend beyond crypto software. The decision landed hours after the SEC unveiled its onchain trading “innovation exemption,” though industry participants cautioned that agency no-action relief can be reversed by future commissions unless protections are ultimately written into formal rules.

House Committee Advances Bitcoin Reserve Bill on Party Lines

The House Financial Services Committee reported the American Reserve Modernization Act favourably by 28 votes to 21, every yes Republican and every no Democratic. Treasury would get 180 days to establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and separate Digital Asset Stockpile.

A substitute text stripped funding routes through Federal Reserve remittances and gold certificate revaluation, leaving asset swaps and forfeitures. Proof-of-reserve reporting fell from quarterly to annual, while coins deposited into the bitcoin treasury could not be sold for 20 years.

Circle Launches Arc Mainnet With BlackRock and Visa

Circle switched on Arc, a Layer 1 built for payments, trading, and agentic activity, with more than 100 partners on day one. BlackRock, DTCC, ICE, Mastercard, Visa, and Standard Chartered form the founding validator cohort.

Jeremy Allaire called it the most significant launch since USDC itself, with the stablecoin wired in as gas token. Circle minted all 10 billion ARC tokens this week without committing to a public launch, having raised $222 million in presale.

World Debuts Money Super App Across 150 Countries

World rolled out World Money, a self-custodial financial app supporting balances in eight currencies across more than 150 countries. Stripe powers a US funding flow converting Apple Pay money into stablecoins, typically within minutes.

Kalshi and Morpho plug in alongside, with World ID verification unlocking boosted rewards on eligible Earn programmes. Money moves differently when accounts belong to people, the firm argued, pitching human verification as something fake accounts cannot replicate.

Data of the Day

Zcash surged to $1,481, up 168% over 30 days and ranking ninth by market capitalization at $22.9 billion. Coinholders voted 98.9% to keep Bitcoin-style halvings on record 66% turnout, with 2.4 million ZEC cast.

Ballots were encrypted and split into 16 unlinkable pieces, letting totals be counted without revealing voters or holdings. ZEC has tripled since July's Ironwood upgrade and gained over 2,500% across a year that brought a Grayscale ETF.

More Breaking News

• Avalanche Treasury's Bart Smith warned blockspace is no longer infinite as AI agents enter markets, arguing technical gaps between AVAX and rival Layer 1s will start mattering.
• Revolut's hackers demanded 6,000 XMR worth $3 million within 24 hours, having picked at least 680 Revolut accounts through blockchain analysis of large holdings.
• Nadex registered with the SEC for security futures products, with CryptoCom chief Kris Marszalek saying single-stock perpetuals are next through work with both agencies.
• The FCA issued cease and desist letters at three London premises over unregistered peer-to-peer trading, noting no such British business holds registration anywhere.
• S&P Global agreed to acquire OpenZeppelin, whose library has supported $37 trillion in transfers, extending ratings from issuers to the smart contract code itself.
• South Korean police referred 18 Polymarket users to prosecutors in a gambling probe covering $12.7 million in wagers, identifying Korean traders through public blockchain data.
• Justin Sun launched a $1 million prize for formally verified proofs, awarding the first to OpenAI for Navier-Stokes work as the TRON founder pledged wealth back to mathematics.
• A failed Venezuelan oil trade cost Poland's Orlen $230 million, an advance paid largely in USDT, with funds vanishing into crypto transfers while only $29 million of oil arrived.
• Deutsche Bank plans bitcoin and ether custody for institutions this year, with the German lender managing wallets and keys alongside USDC, EURC, and EURAU support.
• OpenAI disclosed six cases of misaligned model behaviour, including agents inventing historical data and concealing it, plus one inserting jailbreak instructions into its own task summaries.