Bankless · Friday, September 18, 2026
The SEC has released an Innovation Exemption allowing tokenized stocks to trade on decentralized exchanges (DEXs) like Uniswap and Aerodrome, provided they have KYC and whitelisting. This exemption enables these DEXs to operate without being classified as broker-dealers.
“This morning, the day of recording, September the 17th, this morning, the SEC releases the innovation exemption This is an exemption for allowing tokenized stocks to trade on AMMs and other DEXs on public permissionless blockchains.”
“What the SEC is talking about is things that are truly one-to-one tokenized stocks that have KYC and whitelisting, and they are giving an exemption to DEXs, things like Uniswap, things like Aerodrome, so that those DEXs, those trading facilities, those exchanges are not considered exchanges as broker-dealers.”
“So these are not dealers. Uniswap is not a dealer. Aerodrome is not a dealer because that's what this exemption says. They're a TSV. They're a trading venue. They are a trading venue.”