Former FTX Europe chief targets U.S. tokenized stock trading with new SEC exemption
Perpetuals.com, led by former FTX Europe executive Patrick Gruhn, has filed a notice to operate a tokenized U.S. stock marketplace under the SEC's new five-year innovation exemption. This regulatory framework allows marketplaces to facilitate the trading of tokenized equities on public blockchains without registering as traditional securities exchanges. The platform, operated by Delaware-based subsidiary Kephas Corporation, plans to utilize permissioned automated market maker liquidity pools on the Kronos X Public layer-2 blockchain. Unlike previous stock-linked tokens that lacked shareholder rights, these new tokens must provide dividends and voting rights to comply with SEC requirements. Perpetuals.com follows the recent filing by OKXICE, marking a growing institutional interest in leveraging the SEC's September exemption for round-the-clock equity trading. The company intends to pair tokenized stocks with USDC, with potential trading commencement as early as mid-November pending compliance and security reviews. This development represents a significant shift toward integrating traditional equity markets with blockchain infrastructure under a formal U.S. regulatory pathway.