The SEC is advancing plans to move U.S. securities markets toward 24-hour trading while creating a five-year exemption for firms seeking to offer tokenized securities trading. At a Thursday roundtable in Washington, SEC Chair Paul Atkins said tradable events are not limited to market hours and that longer sessions could let investors respond more quickly. He also said tokenization could improve real-time management of securities inventories, reduce settlement failures and mitigate abusive naked short selling. Commissioner Hester Peirce cautioned that overnight trading could produce wider spreads, greater price volatility, limited time to resolve technology problems and challenges in monitoring transactions. Infrastructure preparations include DTCC's 23x5 trade-capture, clearance and settlement systems, overnight price fluctuation limits and work to distribute consolidated market data through the Securities Information Processor. The transition would also require expanded customer services, prime brokerage, securities lending, stock locates and procedures for corporate actions, material disclosures and SEC filings during EDGAR filing hours.