Outlook for this week's U.S. House tokenization hearing: U.S. SEC and CFTC jointly study tokenized securities and derivatives

On March 23, the U.S. House Financial Services Committee will review the issue of tokenization on Wednesday. Exchanges, market operators and regulators are promoting the introduction of stocks, bonds and other securities products into blockchain-based infrastructure. However, committee materials show that the focus of this hearing is relatively more focused. One bill would require the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to jointly study tokenized securities and derivatives; the other would allow some regulated agencies to use blockchain-based records under future SEC rules. These discussions continue a series of recent developments that have pushed tokenization further into the heart of policy and market discussions. In January this year, the SEC stated that even if relevant records are transferred to the chain, current securities laws will still apply to tokenized stocks and bonds. Earlier this month, the SEC expanded its crypto regulatory framework, noting that most crypto assets are not securities, but tokenized securities still clearly fall within its regulatory scope. Last week, the SEC and the CFTC also reached a coordination agreement, showing that while Congress formally promotes relevant issues, regulators have begun to coordinate and interface at the regulatory level.