Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov said the SEC's Innovation Exemption could accelerate the shift of U.S. equity markets onto blockchains, where tokenized shares can be traded and settled through shared digital infrastructure. Speaking at a panel at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia on September 25, 2026, Nazarov predicted that the amount of tokenized equity will greatly increase as onchain markets expand. The framework, introduced on September 17, 2026, provides five years of conditional relief through September 17, 2031, allowing Tokenized Securities Venues and certain liquidity providers to conduct permissioned trading of tokenized U.S.-listed National Market System stocks without registering as exchanges or dealers. Orca Chief Legal Officer Christopher Montagano previously described the exemption at Korea Blockchain Week 2026 as a supervised opportunity for DeFi to test blockchain-based market infrastructure. The framework requires sanctions compliance and issuer consent, and does not represent an SEC determination on DeFi. Nazarov has also linked equity tokenization to improved liquidity, lower compliance costs and round-the-clock trading. Chainlink supports these markets through Data Feeds and the Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol, or CCIP, which provide blockchain-based market data and interoperability for functions including corporate actions and settlement. Orca has discussed the framework with the SEC since 2025 and began trading tokenized stocks in November 2025.