Today, Bullish and
@Equiniti launched the Issuer Sponsored Token Coalition.
@AlpacaHQ,
@ApexFintech and
@DriveWealth are the first participants, bringing together leading brokerage, trading and market infrastructure firms to help advance issuer-sponsored tokenized securities.
The coalition will develop the technical standards, infrastructure and operating frameworks needed for issuer-sponsored tokenized securities to scale alongside, and interoperate with, existing capital markets.
The launch follows the SEC’s Sept. 17 Innovation Exemption, a five-year framework for on-chain trading of tokenized U.S.-listed stocks.
Under the framework, venues must verify that token holders receive the same rights as holders of the underlying shares, while issuers can object to third-party tokenization.
Issuer-sponsored tokens meet that standard by design.
They are issued with the issuer's participation and connect directly to its shareholder register, preserving shareholder rights, corporate-action entitlements and investor protections.
The coalition is open and non-exclusive, with additional participants to be announced in the coming weeks.