The US Nasdaq inventory alternate is making SEC approval of its proposal to supply tokenized variations of shares listed on the alternate a prime precedence, in accordance with the alternate’s crypto chief.
“We’ll simply transfer as quick as we will,” Nasdaq’s head of digital belongings technique, Matt Savarese, mentioned throughout an interview with CNBC on Thursday, when requested whether or not the SEC might approve the proposal this yr.
“I feel what we have now to actually consider the place the general public feedback come again in after which reply and reply to the SEC questions as they arrive via,” Savarese mentioned. “We hope to sort of work with them as rapidly as doable,” Savarese mentioned.
Savarese says Nasdaq isn’t “upending the system”
The proposal, submitted by Nasdaq on Sept. 8, is requesting to permit traders to purchase and promote inventory tokens — digital representations of shares in publicly traded firms — on the alternate.
Savarese emphasised that Nasdaq is just not making an attempt to overtake the best way shares are invested in when requested whether or not he expects different main exchanges to observe go well with.

Nasdaq’s head of digital belongings, Matt Savarese, spoke to CNBC on Thursday. Supply: CNBC
“We’re not taking a look at upending the system; we wish everybody to return alongside for that experience and convey tokenization extra into the mainstream,” he mentioned.
“We need to do it in that accountable investor-led manner first, underneath the SEC guidelines themselves,” he added.
It was solely in October that Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev mentioned that tokenization will “ultimately eat the entire monetary system.”
The crypto business is split on tokenized equities
Savarese emphasised that Nasdaq is aiming to be an innovator within the ecosystem, noting that the alternate was the primary to transition markets from paper-based buying and selling to digital programs.
Associated: DATs convey crypto’s insider buying and selling downside to TradFi: Shane Molidor
Tokenizing shares has been probably the most important speaking factors within the crypto business this yr.
On Sept. 3, Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz mentioned the corporate grew to become the primary Nasdaq-listed firm to tokenize its fairness on a serious blockchain following its launch on the Solana community.
The dialog round tokenized equities has additionally drawn skepticism from the crypto business.
On Oct. 1, Rob Hadick, common accomplice at crypto enterprise agency Dragonfly, informed Cointelegraph that tokenized equities can be a big profit to conventional markets, however will not be a boon to the crypto business as others have predicted.
Hadick mentioned that if tokenized shares use layer-2 networks, it creates “leakage” as worth and will not circulate again to Ethereum or the broader crypto ecosystem as a lot as hoped.
Journal: When privateness and AML legal guidelines battle: Crypto initiatives’ unattainable alternative

