U.S. Senate Adds Clause to Draft Crypto Bill Specifying 'Tokenized Stocks Are Securities'

The U.S. Senate's draft legislation on virtual assets (cryptocurrencies) has been amended to include a provision that tokenized stocks are covered by existing securities regulatory frameworks. This is a move to clarify the legal character of tokenized assets.

According to crypto-focused media Cointelegraph on the 6th, the Senate included in the draft "Responsible Financial Innovation Act of 2025" a provision classifying tokenized stocks and other tokenized securities still as securities. Accordingly, these assets are expected to remain compatible with existing financial infrastructure such as broker-dealer systems, clearing systems, and trading platforms under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Co-sponsor Sen. Cynthia Lummis said in a recent CNBC interview, "The goal is to get this bill onto the President's desk (to be signed) before the end of the year." The bill also includes provisions delineating jurisdiction between the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and may be considered by the full Senate in November following votes in the Senate Banking Committee this month and the Agriculture Committee in October.

However, securing Democratic support remains a challenge. Lummis said, "We are seeking bipartisan agreement, working with Democrats and Republicans on some detailed issues."

Meanwhile, last month 112 companies and organizations including Coinbase, Kraken, Ripple, Uniswap Labs, and a16z sent a letter to the Senate Banking Committee and the Agriculture Committee urging that the bill include protections for software developers and non-custodial service providers. They argued that outdated regulation is driving innovation talent overseas, emphasizing that the share of open-source blockchain developers in the U.S. fell from 25% in 2021 to 18% in 2025.