Securitize Wins SEC Adviser License Days After Peirce’s Vault Warning

Securitize Capital is now a fully registered investment adviser, the license an SEC commissioner just told crypto vault and lending managers they may need.

Securitize Capital LLC, the asset management arm of tokenization platform Securitize, is now a fully registered investment adviser, the company announced Monday. The subsidiary had been running as an exempt reporting adviser, a lighter-touch category for smaller private fund managers, and now sits on the SEC’s register under file number 801-136838.

That gives Securitize three SEC registrations across its U.S. affiliates, alongside the broker-dealer that operates its alternative trading system and its transfer agent. Registration also subjects it to examination, recordkeeping and disclosure rules under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940.

Securitize in its statement cited SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce‘s recent warning that managing crypto vaults and onchain lending strategies may raise investment adviser obligations.

“Asset managers and institutional investors want to work with partners that understand both the opportunity of tokenization and the obligations that come with operating in regulated markets,” Carlos Domingo, Securitize’s co-founder and CEO, said in a statement. “Through Securitize Capital, we are adding another important capability to our full stack and strengthening our ability to help institutions develop and manage investment strategies built for an onchain financial system.”

Securitize worked with Euler on a permissioned vault announced in June that lets tokenized funds be posted as DeFi collateral without breaking the transfer restrictions regulated assets carry. An adviser license could see it manage those strategies for clients instead of only supplying the rails.

There is about $8.1 billion parked across 59 risk-curator platforms, led by Steakhouse Financial, Sentora and Gauntlet, according to DeFiLlama. None of the three appears on the SEC’s adviser register.

Securitize’s recent announcement comes as the tokenization market sits near record levels. RWA.xyz puts the distributed value of tokenized real-world assets, excluding stablecoins, at roughly $36.9 billion, up about 4% over 30 days. Securitize issues BlackRock’s BUIDL fund, which holds $2.6 billion of that total, and is building the New York Stock Exchange’s tokenized stock venue.

SECZ, which tokenized $295 million of its own stock on its NYSE debut on July 2, most recently changed hands near $6.94, down over 7% on the day and more than 50% below its roughly $14 record price.

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