SEC Approves First Tokenized Treasury STO Under New Registered Offerings Framework
BlackRock's BUIDL-II becomes the first security token to clear the SEC's streamlined registered offering pathway. The document runs 312 pages. The press release runs four lines.
The Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday approved BlackRock's BUIDL-II tokenized U.S. Treasury fund as the first security token offering cleared through the agency's new Rule 195 registered offerings framework. The approval marks the end of a three-year regulatory limbo for institutional-grade on-chain securities in the United States.
What changed
Rule 195, adopted in February, allows qualifying digital securities to be registered under a streamlined disclosure regime provided they meet five conditions:
- Bearer-format restrictions at the protocol level
- Verified on-chain transfer-agent infrastructure
- Daily NAV attestation via a registered auditor
- Sub-24-hour redemption in USD
- Real-time cap-table reconciliation with the SEC's EDGAR-2 portal
BlackRock's filing, available on EDGAR as of 7:14 a.m. ET, demonstrates compliance with all five. The token — deployed to both Ethereum mainnet and a dedicated appchain — now sits at the intersection of the most traditional asset in finance and the most contested regulatory vocabulary in crypto.
The quiet part
"We view this approval as a template, not an exception," said Commissioner Hester Peirce in the dissent-free 5-0 vote statement. The language was unusually warm.
"Tokenization is not a narrative. It is an operational upgrade. Today's approval treats it that way." — H. Peirce, SEC
Several other filings — Franklin Templeton's BENJI-II, WisdomTree's WTIP, and a rumored Fidelity wrapper — are believed to be in late-stage review. Sources close to the staff suggest the next approval could come within weeks.
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