The SEC is rewriting 50-year-old Wall Street rules to let public blockchains decide who legally owns a stock

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) wants to let Wall Street’s official shareholder records move onchain while keeping regulated transfer agents in control.

On Sept. 1, the financial regulator proposed its first major overhaul of transfer-agent rules since regulations were adopted in the late 1970s and early 1980s, explicitly allowing blockchain or other distributed-ledger technology to serve as a company’s master securityholder file, or part of it.

That would bring tokenized securities deeper into the machinery that determines who legally owns shares, rather than limiting blockchain to a parallel record or digital representation.

One recordkeeping transfer agent would still retain exclusive control over the official shareholder file and remain responsible for its accuracy, security, and production to regulators.

SEC Chairman Paul Atkins said the proposal reflects the growing use of electronic communications and blockchain technology in securities offerings and share transfers. The broader rewrite would also replace paper-based requirements with electronic recordkeeping standards and update reporting around tokenization and distributed ledgers.

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