T. Rowe Price's Head Of Digital Assets Says Tokenized Stocks Must Be 'Instantly Fungible,' Agency Rules Can Move Without CLARITY Act

Blue Macellari, Head of Digital Assets at T. Rowe Price, argues that tokenized stocks will only achieve true market efficiency when they become instantly fungible with legacy equity formats. Currently, tokenized shares remain trapped in isolated on-chain liquidity pools, requiring complex multi-step functions to bridge with traditional systems, which introduces significant operational delays. Macellari emphasizes that the primary barrier to this integration is regulatory uncertainty regarding issuance authority and the legal classification of tokenized assets as native issuances versus derivatives. Despite the slow progress of legislative efforts like the CLARITY Act, she remains optimistic that agency-level rulemaking by bodies like the SEC will provide the necessary framework for industry growth. Major infrastructure players including the DTCC, ICE, and Nasdaq are already actively developing solutions to bridge these liquidity gaps. The SEC recently introduced an 'Innovation Exemption' allowing venues to trade tokenized U.S. stocks for five years without full exchange registration, signaling a shift toward parallel development. This evolution is critical for the RWA market, as it aims to modernize the world's largest equity markets without disrupting existing financial stability.