Atkins says SEC to embrace innovation, criticizes regulatory uncertainty around tokenization

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Paul Atkins sat down with CNBC last week to talk about the regulatory landscape for the commission. One topic he focused on was the newest investing trend of firms selling tokens of shares of private companies such as SpaceX and OpenAI, and how that will change regulations at the SEC. 

”Tokenization and other aspects of doing the tokenization in the marketplace is yet the next step to have much more efficiency in the marketplace and, and certainty of having a trade settle,” Atkins said. ”We at the SEC should be focused on how do we advance innovation in the marketplace. And so, I would argue here, over the last several years, the SEC has been standing athwart efforts to innovate in the marketplace because things have been unclear. The rules have not been clear.”