The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has approved an 'Innovation Exemption' allowing qualifying venues to trade tokenized U.S. stocks on public blockchains without registering as national exchanges. The decision came two days after the Senate blocked the Clarity Act by a vote of 49 to 50, and it sent altcoins surging 10-20% higher.

The move anchored the latest edition of Morning Minute, Decrypt's daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analysis and opinions expressed in the newsletter are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt.

SEC Chair Atkins said that since Congress was unsuccessful, the Commission is taking a significant step within its statutory authority.

Tokenized Securities Venues

Under the exemption, platforms known as Tokenized Securities Venues can run tokenized equities through automated market makers and liquidity pools on permissionless chains. Firms providing that liquidity receive separate relief from dealer registration. There is no application queue: a firm that meets the requirements notifies the SEC and begins operating. The exemption took effect immediately and runs for five years, making the framework temporary rather than permanent rulemaking.

Two key limitations apply. First, the exemption covers only real tokenized stocks carrying full rights, including dividends and voting, which excludes the price-tracking synthetics that have driven offshore volume. That full-rights requirement draws a clear line between compliant U.S. tokenized equities and the offshore products driving that volume. Second, while an unaffiliated party can tokenize a company's stock, the issuer has 30 days to object and effectively block its shares from being tokenized and traded, meaning companies retain some power over the process. With the framework already in effect, which issuers use the 30-day objection window and how quickly venues begin operating under the notification process are the immediate details to watch.

The AMC Objection Fight

That second provision lands directly on the fight AMC's Adam Aron picked two weeks ago, when he called Robinhood's stock tokens 'contemptible and vile' and threatened to involve the SEC. He now has the mechanism he was asking for. Robinhood and Coinbase had already announced that redemption and voting rights were coming, which is precisely what the requires.

S&P Global Acquires OpenZeppelin

The SEC's approval came on the same day that S&P Global acquired OpenZeppelin. S&P Global Ratings framed the deal as bringing trusted data, benchmarks and transparent risk assessment to markets moving on-chain. In practice, the newsletter noted, if tokenized funds and stablecoins become genuine institutional instruments, someone has to assess whether the contract holding the assets is sound, not just whether the issuer is.

Warner's takeaway is that everything in traditional finance is coming on-chain: stocks, commodities and all other types of assets will become tokenized and traded on blockchains globally, permissionlessly and 24/7. In his view, it is just a matter of time, and the SEC's move was a huge step toward making that happen sooner rather than later.

Macro Crypto and Markets

Crypto majors were broadly green with HYPE leading: BTC rose 2.2% to $78k, ETH gained 3% to $2,500, SOL climbed 6% to $106, HYPE jumped 13% to $90.53 at a new all-time high, and ZEC added 8% to $1,460. Top altcoin movers included UNI (+26%), ARB (+25%) and NEAR (+22%), with on-chain leaders posting 10-30% gains.

Oil rose 1% to $101 and gold gained 0.6% to $4,420. Stock futures were fairly flat after the previous day's bounce, with the Dow down 0.05% and the Nasdaq up 0.3%.

Elsewhere in regulation and corporate news:

• The SEC held a roundtable on 24-hour trading an hour after approving tokenized securities, with Atkins saying tokenization could deliver real-time inventory management.
• The CFTC issued a no-action letter letting passive software providers connect users to regulated derivatives without registering as introducing brokers, extending relief first granted to Phantom in March.
• S&P Global agreed to acquire OpenZeppelin, the smart contract security firm whose libraries underpin more than $37 trillion in value transferred, in its second digital-asset deal in four days.
• NYSE parent ICE is evaluating Avalanche as the settlement layer for an in-development alternative trading system, with ICE's Michael Blaugrund saying it meets many of the requirements and that the teams are closely engaged.
• Coinbase partnered with Stablecore to put custody, trading, staking and stablecoin payments inside community bank and credit union apps, reaching a footprint of more than 3,000 US institutions.
• Vitalik Buterin rejected the idea that AI hacking dooms cybersecurity, arguing formal verification favors defenders and noting roughly 90% of his net worth sits in crypto as an implicit bet on that view.

Corporate Treasuries and ETFs

Bitcoin ETFs saw $159 million in net inflows on Thursday, while Ether ETFs recorded $39 million in outflows.

Meme Coin Tracker

Meme leaders were green: DOGE +6%, SHIB +7%, PEPE +7%, PENGU +6%, TRUMP +5% and SPX +4%.

Robinhood chain leaders were sharply higher after the SEC exemption: Pons rose 10% to $480 million, AI gained 30% to $360 million and Cashcat added 3% to $204 million, with Boner +35%, Orbio +80%, Index +30% and Moo +35% leading the top movers.

Solana's top movers were led by Paid +30%, Raycat +40%, MCAT +80% and Tilcayo +45x. The Stonk ecosystem rallied as Stonk rose 25% to $220 million, Purr climbed 47% and Nearkat surged 120%.

Token, Airdrop and Protocol Tracker

Hyperliquid announced that native lending and borrowing went live on its platform, letting users collateralize HYPE and BTC to borrow stablecoins.

Hyperliquid led on-chain protocols in revenue with $1.94 million, followed by Pump.fun with $1.89 million; Pons fell to 15th with $460,000. Stonkfun posted its highest revenue day since Sunday with $900,000.

What Is Happening in NFTs?

NFT leaders were mostly flat: Punks +1% at 29.7 ETH, BAYC even at 6.85 ETH and Pudgy -1% at 3.38 ETH. Rare Friends (+40%) and Stonkbrokers (+11%) led the top movers.

Zksnarks raised $37 million in a public auction that closed at 1.5 ZEC, with trading going live today. FWA launched its v2 on Wednesday, triggering a 50% jump in the FWA token to $17 million.