Three companies have formally notified the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of their intent to operate tokenized securities venues under a new rule, according to the Wall Street regulator.

The firms — Tokenized Stock Venue, Perpetuals.com, and OKX — each submitted plans to operate venues allowing trading of tokenized stocks, the SEC said in a Wednesday announcement. Alongside Intercontinental Exchange — the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange — crypto exchange OKX was the first to file with the regulator, laying out plans to debut tokenized securities trading on a new platform, OKXICE.

In September, the SEC said it was offering a five-year exemption to platforms that facilitate trading of tokenized stocks. The filings are among the first under that framework, making the SEC's review of them an early test of how the exemption will work in practice. The regulator is pressing ahead with rules for the crypto space even after lawmakers blocked major digital asset legislation the same month.

Tokenized stocks are the latest example of firms seeking to apply the underlying technology of Bitcoin to help upgrade traditional finance. By putting stocks on the blockchain, traders can operate around the clock, according to proponents.

The SEC cautioned on Wednesday that a firm's appearance on the list does not necessarily mean it meets all the requirements of the rule, leaving open whether and when the proposed venues might actually go live.

The regulator has taken a strongly pro-crypto posture under U.S. President Donald Trump. SEC Chair Paul Atkins has said the agency wants to "update" how it watchdogs securities and "modernize them in the age of blockchain and crypto assets," and that the U.S. should be on track to become the "crypto capital of the world."

That marks a reversal from the administration of former Democratic President Joe Biden, when the SEC was hostile toward the crypto industry and hit major companies — including Coinbase and Kraken — with lawsuits. The regulator drew criticism for so-called regulation by enforcement.

Under Trump, that approach has changed: the Republican campaigned on a platform of supporting the crypto space and has signed a number of laws and executive orders aimed at helping the digital asset industry.

The filings extend a broader tokenization trend in traditional finance. Titans such as BlackRock and Franklin Templeton have used blockchain rails for years to tokenize money market funds. In January, the S&P 500 gave crypto platform Trade[XYZ] the green light to debut a new derivative contract on decentralized exchange Hyperliquid, giving traders the ability to trade the stock index 24-7.

This article first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and was written by Mathew Di Salvo.