Chainlink co‑founder and CEO Sergey Nazarov said he met with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins and came away impressed by the agency’s urgency to make crypto tokenization work inside existing securities rules.
Nazarov told CoinDesk the conversation was less about whether tokenization should happen and more about how to do it with legal and market safeguards in place. He highlighted Atkins’ recently announced Project Crypto initiative and said the chair has “very clear ideas and goals” for getting traditional finance to operate correctly on‑chain.
The CEO said he also met the White House crypto liaison and is optimistic about the combined momentum from both the SEC and the administration. Nazarov suggested that tokenized real‑world assets could become the dominant part of the market and predicted that, if standards for broker‑dealer and transfer‑agent compliance are met, full tokenization could be possible “maybe by the middle of next year.”
One practical hurdle he flagged is getting blockchains to satisfy the legal test for a legally binding transfer of assets — a technical and operational class of problems Chainlink is working on with regulators and industry partners.
The conversation comes amid a string of regulatory moves: the SEC and CFTC issued joint guidance on spot trading for certain crypto assets, the SEC published a near‑term agenda packed with crypto workstreams, and leaders from both agencies signaled closer cooperation. Congress is separately advancing a longer Senate crypto bill that could reshape market structure and oversight.
Chainlink’s network was also tapped by the U.S. Department of Commerce to publish GDP data on‑chain, an early example of tokenized public‑sector data delivery. Nazarov framed the moment as a window for industry to cement its role in the U.S. economy if it can meet legal and operational requirements.
Risk note: progress on policy does not remove legal uncertainty — firms pursuing tokenization should expect regulatory scrutiny, compliance costs and phased timelines as rules and technical standards are established.
Source: CoinDesk. Read the original coverage for full details.