Galaxy exec: TradFi playing both sides on crypto, tokenized stocks are next front

Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy Digital, argued on X that traditional finance institutions like Citadel and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) are publicly supporting cryptocurrency while privately lobbying to hinder its market growth. Thorn noted that Citadel and SIFMA have urged the U.S. SEC's crypto task force to strongly apply existing securities laws when tokenized stocks are traded using crypto-native technologies like DeFi and Automated Market Makers (AMMs). In response, Galaxy Digital sent a letter to the agency asserting that AMMs are not exchanges, liquidity providers (LPs) are not dealers, and applying securities laws from a technology-neutral perspective is excessive. He emphasized that Bitcoin has already won its battle with traditional finance, and the next front is tokenized stocks.