Perpetuals Files SEC Notice to Trade Tokenized U.S. Stocks, Targets Mid-November Launch

Published October 15, 2026, 03:15 UTC. Based on Perpetuals.com's notice filed October 14, 2026 and its announcement the same day; the SEC's innovation exemption order of September 2026; and reporting by CoinDesk and NewsCord.

Perpetuals.com has filed a notice with the Securities and Exchange Commission to operate a tokenized securities venue, making it the first company to move under the SEC's five-year innovation exemption for trading real U.S. stocks on public blockchains. The company filed on Wednesday, October 14, 2026, and said trading could begin in mid-November at the earliest, once a 30-day notice period for listed companies to object runs out.

The first filing under the innovation exemption

The SEC introduced the innovation exemption in September 2026. The order grants exemptive relief for trading National Market System securities on automated market makers, which the SEC describes as blockchain-based smart contracts that execute transactions against assets supplied to liquidity pools. Under the exemption, a marketplace can trade U.S. stocks on public blockchains without registering as a national securities exchange, as long as the tokens carry the same shareholder rights as ordinary shares, including dividends and voting rights.

Perpetuals.com, led by chief executive Patrick Gruhn, said it will run permissioned automated market maker liquidity pools, initially on Kronos X Public, an Ethereum-compatible layer-2 blockchain developed by the company. Each pool would pair a tokenized U.S. stock with a digital asset that the company said it initially expects to be a form of USDC, according to reporting of the filing by CoinDesk.

The 30-day issuer opt-out window

The framework gives listed companies 30 days from receiving a tokenized securities venue's notice to object to having their shares traded on it. A valid objection blocks the venue from trading that company's tokenized stock, so the opening lineup of tokens will depend in part on which issuers stay silent during the notice period. Perpetuals.com said it has not set a firm launch date and will publish updated disclosures, including live smart-contract addresses, before trading begins.

Perpetuals said the start of trading depends on completing market-data and compliance arrangements and finishing smart-contract security reviews, a process it has not yet finished. The mid-November target is therefore the earliest possible date, not a committed one.

Gruhn and the FTX connection

Gruhn previously led FTX Europe, the European arm of the FTX Group, before the exchange collapsed in November 2022. Before that, he founded Digital Assets AG, the Swiss tokenization company that worked with German investment firm CM-Equity to issue digital tokens linked to stocks such as Tesla and Coinbase for crypto traders. The FTX Group later acquired Digital Assets AG, turning it into FTX Europe.

"The Perpetuals team has long been trailblazers in tokenization, and this expansion into the U.S. allows us to further utilize our platform and deep expertise," Gruhn said in the company's announcement, framing the SEC filing as a return to tokenized equities. Binance discontinued its own stock tokens offering in July 2021 after German regulator BaFin raised concerns about the lack of a published securities prospectus. Perpetuals said the securities envisioned under the SEC's new framework differ from those earlier products.

A mid-November start, at the earliest

The filing puts Perpetuals.com ahead in a race that has accelerated since the SEC granted the exemption in September. Nasdaq-listed Perpetuals announced plans earlier in October to trade tokenized stocks under the exemption, exchanges including Bybit have launched their own real-stock offerings, and the SEC moved in October to approve Cboe binary options tied to crypto-company metrics. A mid-November launch would make Perpetuals.com the first venue operating under the exemption to bring real, dividend-paying shares to blockchain rails.

This article is news reporting and is not investment advice.

Sources

• Perpetuals.com notice and announcement, October 14, 2026, primary source for the SEC notice filing, the Kronos X Public pools, the USDC pairing, the 30-day issuer objection window and the mid-November earliest trading date
• SEC innovation exemption order, September 2026, primary source for the five-year exemptive relief, the automated market maker definition, and the requirement that tokens carry the same shareholder rights as ordinary shares, including dividends and voting rights
• CoinDesk, October 14, 2026, primary reporting of the Perpetuals notice filing, the permissioned AMM pool structure and the smart-contract disclosure and security review conditions
• NewsCord, October 15, 2026, secondary source cross-checking CoinDesk's reporting with six additional outlets