Regulators and Tokenisation: What Changed Between 8 September and 8 October

Tokenisation now has a regulatory calendar. Over one month, authorities in London, Washington and Paris published documents on how tokenised assets should be used, held and traded. None of them is a new law. They are a feedback statement, a call for input, staff FAQs, an advisory response to the European Commission and a venue notice under an existing exemption. Each one is labelled for what it is below.

UK: collateral first, a roadmap promised, and a question about gold

Feedback statement FS26/1 (confirmed). In May the FCA and the Bank of England published a joint Call for Input on tokenisation in wholesale markets. The FCA’s FS26/1, dated September 2026, summarises the replies. “We received 123 responses to the Call for Input,” it says [1].

Its central conclusion is narrow and practical [1]:

• “At least in the short to medium-term, the main benefit to wholesale markets is likely to be in improving collateral mobility.”
• The authorities will consider whether tokenised assets “like stablecoins” can serve as collateral in the Bank’s Sterling Monetary Framework operations, including DIGIT, the government’s digital gilt pilot.
• “The Bank will also consult on a supervisory statement and discussion paper later this year on the acceptance of tokenised collateral by Central Counterparties.”
• “We will publish a Roadmap later this year.” The authorities “confirm that our Roadmap will include dates and detail on each workstream” [1].

Why it matters. A tokenised gilt or fund share that can be posted as margin quickly, at any hour, is more useful to a bank than one that sits in a wallet. The UK is starting there, not with retail products.

Call for Input on tokenised gold (confirmed). The FCA published this alongside FS26/1 on 14 September. It closes on 23 October 2026 [2]. Several respondents to the May Call for Input had raised tokenised gold, and the FCA calls London “the world’s largest centre for spot gold trading” [2]. It asks three things [2]:

• What are the use cases in wholesale markets?
• Which areas are challenging?
• What is “the impact of perceived uncertainty around the collective investment scheme (CIS) and alternative investment fund (AIF) regulatory perimeter”? In plain terms: when does a gold token become a fund?

The FCA says the result “may include providing guidance, or considering a bespoke regime for tokenised gold” [2]. That is a possibility, not a commitment.

US: CFTC staff update FAQs on tokenised investments

Confirmed. On 24 September three divisions of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission updated their FAQs on crypto assets and blockchain technology [3]. These were the Market Participants Division, the Division of Market Oversight and the Division of Clearing and Risk. The update covers:

• “investments of customer funds in tokenized forms of permitted investments”
• the use of blockchain technology to meet a registrant’s recordkeeping requirements [3]

The FAQs were first released on 20 March 2026. They clarify topics addressed in Staff Letter 25-39 (Tokenized Collateral Guidance) and Staff Letter 26-05 (a staff no-action position on digital assets accepted as margin collateral) [3]. Chairman Michael S. Selig said he was “pleased to see staff update these frequently asked questions consistent with the agency’s ongoing efforts to provide regulatory clarity for the crypto industry” [3].

What kind of document this is. These are staff FAQs, not a Commission rule: they set out how staff read existing requirements. The release does not reproduce the new answers.

US: a venue notice under the SEC’s Innovation Exemption

Confirmed, but not an approval. On 4 October, OKXICE LLC published a notice for a Tokenized Securities Venue (TSV) under the SEC’s Innovation Exemption [4]. OKXICE is owned 50/50 by Intercontinental Exchange and OKC USA. The notice lists 63 tokenised US stocks for trading against stablecoins in permissioned pools on XLayer, around the clock [4].

The notice says the TSV is not registered with the SEC “in any capacity for the activities performed under the TSV Exemption” and that the SEC “has not passed upon the merits or accuracy of the disclosures in this Notice” [4]. It gives no launch date. One issuer, Cerebras Systems, has already filed an objection [4]. The Block reports that issuers have 30 days to opt out; that figure comes from The Block, not the notice [5].

EU: ESMA’s MiCA review response

Confirmed as ESMA’s response. Its reforms are proposals. On 30 September the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) answered the European Commission’s consultation on reviewing the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) [6]. Its main asks [6][7]:

• Investor protection: stricter rules on crypto marketing, “particularly when they are promoted by influencers and third parties”; clearer costs; disclosure requirements for staking, lending and borrowing.
• Supervision: stronger powers against fraudulent websites, unauthorised firms from outside the EU, and services linked to stablecoins that do not comply with MiCA.
• DeFi: “clearer criteria for determining which activities can be considered genuinely decentralised”, plus a new regulated service for firms that give users access to DeFi protocols.
• Classification: the power for ESMA to issue binding opinions on how tokens are classified.

The tokenised-securities proposal. “Looking beyond the immediate MiCA review,” ESMA “highlights the need for a framework for tokenised securities and on-chain settlement that can support the development of an integrated European tokenised capital market” [6]. In its full response, ESMA says that over time, as demand for DLT-native issuances develops, “an optional EU-level 28th regime could establish a consistent basis for issuing, transferring and settling tokenised securities across Member States without requiring immediate harmonisation of every relevant area of national law” [7].

A “28th regime” is an optional EU-wide framework alongside the 27 national ones. It is a proposal; ESMA’s word is “could”. The Commission decides what goes into any legislation, which the Parliament and Council must then agree.

What this does not prove

• That the UK will accept stablecoins as central bank collateral. It will “consider” eligibility. The CCP paper and the Roadmap are still to come [1].
• That tokenised gold will get its own UK regime. That is one possible outcome of a consultation open until 23 October [2].
• That the CFTC has changed its rules. These are staff FAQs [3].
• That OKXICE is approved or launching on a known date. It has published a notice and given no launch date [4].
• That the EU will create a 28th regime. ESMA has proposed it to the Commission [7].

The Bottom Line

Regulators are fitting tokenised assets into existing rulebooks, not writing new ones. The UK is betting on collateral mobility and asking when gold tokens become funds [1][2]. CFTC staff are explaining how tokenised investments fit customer-fund rules [3]. ESMA wants an EU-wide tokenised-securities framework in the long run [6][7]. OKXICE’s notice shows the US exemption in use, and its limits: no SEC approval, and an issuer objection already filed [4]. Next dates: the FCA gold deadline of 23 October and the UK Roadmap, promised “later this year”.

Sources

1. Financial Conduct Authority, “FS26/1: Tokenisation in Wholesale Financial Markets” (feedback statement on the joint FCA/Bank of England Call for Input), September 2026. https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/feedback/fs26-1.pdf
2. Financial Conduct Authority, “Call for Input: Tokenised gold – opportunities and risk for UK wholesale markets,” published 14 September 2026, closes 23 October 2026. https://www.fca.org.uk/publications/calls-input/call-input-tokenised-gold-opportunities-and-risk-uk-wholesale-markets
3. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, “CFTC Staff Releases Updates to FAQs Concerning Registrants and Registered Entity Activities Relating to Crypto Assets and Blockchain Technologies,” Release 9303-26, 24 September 2026. https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/9303-26
4. OKXICE LLC, OKXICE TSV notice under the Tokenized Securities Venue Exemption (91 Fed. Reg. 60168), dated 4 October 2026 (PDF). https://www.okx.com/cdn/assets/files/2610/798CC1267CB56FB2.pdf
5. Timmy Shen, “OKX, NYSE parent ICE joint venture seeks to launch tokenized US stock trading venue,” The Block, 5 October 2026. https://www.theblock.co/news/business/2026-10-05-okx-ice-joint-venture-tokenized-stock-trading-417613
6. European Securities and Markets Authority, “ESMA calls for changes to make MiCA clearer, safer and ready for emerging services” (news), 30 September 2026. https://www.esma.europa.eu/press-news/esma-news/esma-calls-changes-make-mica-clearer-safer-and-ready-emerging-services
7. European Securities and Markets Authority, “ESMA Response to the EC Consultation on the review of Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 (MiCA),” ESMA75-113276571-1721, 30 September 2026 (PDF). https://www.esma.europa.eu/sites/default/files/2026-09/ESMA75-113276571-1721_Response_to_the_EC_consultation_MiCA_regulation_review.pdf