SEC Chair predicts 2-year timeline to put US fully on chain but the real $12.6 trillion opportunity isn’t equities
The SEC Chair anticipates US markets moving on-chain within two years, focusing on layers two and three, with repo markets offering the largest immediate opportunity.Summary
SEC Chair Paul Atkins predicted that US financial markets will move "on-chain" within a couple of years, driven by the Commission's "Project Crypto" initiative. The article clarifies that "on-chain" involves a four-layer stack, suggesting the two-year timeline primarily targets Layers Two (tokenized entitlements with incumbent clearing) and Layer Three (on-chain settlement via stablecoins or CBDC with delivery-versus-payment).
The addressable market is vast, encompassing $67.7 trillion in public equities and $30.3 trillion in Treasuries. However, the most significant immediate opportunity lies in the repo market, which has an estimated average daily exposure of $12.6 trillion. Tokenization here could de-risk settlement and improve collateral mobility, making even a small percentage adoption highly valuable.
Adoption will follow a ladder of regulatory friction, starting with tokenized cash products and short-dated bills, followed by permissioned transfer of mainstream securities entitlements (Layer Two). Full lifecycle automation (Layer Four) remains distant. The near-term focus is on institutional, permissioned adoption, leveraging stablecoins as the settlement base, rather than a wholesale migration to public DeFi markets.
(Source：CryptoSlate)