October 19, 2026
Foley Viewpoints
The SEC’s Innovation Exemption
If you work in a public company environment but have been ignoring blockchain technology, you should probably read this report. The SEC has issued an order and request for comments via Release No. 34-106402, available at https://www.sec.gov/rules-regulations/2026/09/4-927 (the Order), creating a time-limited (five-year) framework for secondary trading of tokenized national market system (NMS) stocks through permissioned automated market makers (AMMs) and liquidity pools. Because every stock listed on the New York Stock Exchange or the Nasdaq Stock Market is an NMS stock, the Order is potentially applicable to the stock of most major U.S. public companies.