Crypto Heavyweights Solana Policy Institute, Superstate, and Orca Push SEC for Blockchain-Based Securities Trading
Three major players—Solana Policy Institute, asset manager Superstate, and DEX pioneer Orca—are collectively pressing the SEC to greenlight securities trading on public blockchains. A bold move that could force Wall Street’s aging infrastructure into the 21st century—or die trying.
Why it matters: This isn’t just about tokenized stocks. It’s a direct challenge to the DTCC’s monopoly, wrapped in regulatory compliance like a Trojan horse. The SEC’s response will reveal whether they’re truly ’technology neutral’ or just protecting legacy middlemen collecting rent on slow settlements.
The kicker: Watch how fast traditional finance ’innovates’ when their 3-day settlement gravy train gets blockchain-arbitraged into oblivion. Bonus irony points if the same banks fighting crypto start demanding permissioned chains to stay relevant.
Project Open
The proposal would allow the issuance of tokens to represent securities on a public blockchain, like Solana (SOL), allowing for programmable compliance features and settlement mechanisms.
The securities would be available to eligible investors through interfaces governed by know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) requirements.
Orca would provide the liquidity venue and price discovery, while Superstate, already operating under an SEC-registered investment advisor (RIA) structure, would serve as the issuer. The pilot proposes a measured scope, targeting limited asset types and capped transaction volumes.
It seeks to evaluate the feasibility of public blockchain infrastructure as an alternative to existing clearing and settlement systems such as DTCC, with a focus on regulatory auditability, transparency, and operational resilience.
The coalition seeks no-action relief or exemption orders from the SEC’s Divisions of Trading and Markets and Investment Management.
The petition also outlines legal arguments asserting that the pilot would remain within the bounds of the Investment Company Act and Exchange Act, given its narrow structure and oversight features.
Regulatory engagement amid market evolution
The filing arrives at a time when the SEC is increasing its engagement with tokenization and blockchain-based infrastructure.
Project Open explicitly calls for the use of public, decentralized blockchain infrastructure. The sponsors argue that public chains offer verifiable audit trails, open access to market data, and lower barriers to entry for issuers and intermediaries, aligning with the SEC’s long-term goals for transparency and investor protection.
The pilot would also provide empirical data on investor behavior, system performance, and compliance monitoring in a blockchain-native environment, which would inform future policymaking.
The filing includes technical documentation detailing the cryptographic settlement model, token standards, and access controls to support supervisory visibility and enforce compliance.
The SEC has not issued a formal response, and there is no current timeline for a decision.
If approved, the Project Open pilot would represent one of the first SEC-sanctioned efforts to operationalize securities trading directly on a public blockchain with a registered asset manager and decentralized exchange as counterparties.
