Securitize Adds SEC Investment Adviser Licence, Completing Five-Licence Regulatory Stack
Securitize Capital, a subsidiary of the Miami-based tokenization platform Securitize, registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as a fully licensed investment adviser on 27 July 2026, giving the firm a regulatory credential that allows it to formally advise institutional clients on building and managing onchain investment portfolios.
The registration upgrades Securitize Capital from its previous status as an exempt reporting adviser. Combined with its existing broker-dealer, alternative trading system, transfer agent, and fund administrator licences, Securitize now holds five distinct regulated licences simultaneously. The company claims no other firm in the real-world asset (RWA) tokenization sector holds the same combination, an assertion reported by Asset Servicing Times and The Block but attributed to the company rather than independently verified by those outlets.
"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," said co-founder and CEO Carlos Domingo.
What the new licence actually changes
Under the U.S. Investment Advisers Act of 1940, a registered investment adviser can provide discretionary portfolio management, strategy consulting, and ongoing advisory services to clients for compensation. Previously, Securitize could issue, administer, and transfer tokenized securities. What it could not do is formally advise clients on how to construct and manage portfolios of those securities. The new registration closes that gap.
The timing aligns with a regulatory signal from SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, who indicated in remarks reported by CoinDesk that certain onchain vault management and lending strategies could fall under investment adviser rules depending on their structure. The precise date and format of those remarks were not confirmed at the time of publication.
Both activities sit squarely inside Securitize's existing infrastructure. The timing of the registration suggests the company is moving to operate inside those rules rather than around them.
Securitize currently manages more than $4 billion in tokenized assets across 650-plus funds. Its curated vaults hold approximately $8.6 billion in assets, according to data from Vaults.fyi.
BUIDL and the institutional product base
Securitize's most prominent client relationship is with BlackRock. The BUIDL tokenized money market fund, launched in March 2024 and administered by Securitize, now holds roughly $3.07 billion in assets under management, making it the largest single tokenized financial product on public blockchains. It operates across seven confirmed networks: Ethereum, Avalanche, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, Aptos, and BNB Chain. It is also accepted as collateral on Binance.
Management fees range from 20 to 50 basis points depending on the chain (50 bps on Ethereum, Arbitrum, and Optimism; 20 bps on Aptos, Avalanche, and Polygon).
Other asset managers using Securitize's infrastructure include Apollo, KKR, Hamilton Lane, VanEck, BNY, and Morgan Stanley.
Public listing and stock decline
Securitize listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker SECZ on 2 July 2026 through a SPAC merger with Cantor Equity Partners II, raising approximately $400 million at a pre-money valuation of $1.25 billion. On listing day, the company tokenized roughly $295 million of its own shares onchain, becoming the first newly public company to do so at debut.
SECZ shares have since fallen about 40% from their debut price.
Domingo has said the $400 million is earmarked for acquisitions rather than operating costs. "One of the things we're going to be looking at is acquisitions because we obviously don't need $400 million to run the company," he told CoinDesk on 6 July 2026.
What this means outside the United States
For users in markets like Nigeria, Kenya, India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, the investment adviser registration matters mostly at the structural level. Securitize's products, including BUIDL, are permissioned and require accredited investor status under U.S. securities law. Retail investors in these markets cannot access them directly. That constraint does not change with this registration.
What does shift is the sophistication of products Securitize can now legally design and manage for institutional counterparties, including sovereign wealth funds and regional asset managers in emerging markets. As the firm builds onchain yield strategies with formal advisory standing, downstream distributors such as DeFi protocols or regional fintech platforms could potentially integrate Securitize-managed products and extend access further, though no such arrangements have been announced.
India represents a particularly relevant case. The country ranks among the top five globally by crypto user volume yet lacks a comprehensive tokenized securities framework, and both the Reserve Bank of India and the Securities and Exchange Board of India are moving incrementally toward digital asset policy. For South Asian institutional investors, Securitize's expanded advisory capability may become more material as that regulatory picture develops.
For African markets, existing infrastructure offers some precedent. Platforms such as Goldfinch have demonstrated a working model for onchain capital reaching African fintech lenders, providing yield loans in the 10 to 17 percent range. Securitize's expanded advisory standing could eventually connect with similar distribution pathways, though that remains speculative at this stage.
BUIDL's presence on BNB Chain is the most tangible existing connection to these regions today. Binance's user base across West Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia is significant, though precise regional figures are not publicly available, and BUIDL's acceptance as collateral on Binance gives onchain users in those markets a point of indirect exposure to dollar-denominated Treasury yields, even if full fund access remains out of reach.
Broader market context
The registration arrives as the total tokenized RWA market, excluding stablecoins, approaches $31 billion on public blockchains, a gain of more than 400% since early 2025 according to data from rwa.xyz.
Tokenized U.S. Treasuries account for approximately $13.4 billion of that total as of Q1 2026, the single largest asset class in the space.
Domingo has projected that tokenized equities alone could push the sector toward $5 trillion. That figure sits within a broader industry forecast: Research and Markets projects total tokenized assets reaching $16 trillion by 2030. With five regulated licences now in place and $400 million available for acquisitions, Securitize is positioning itself as a central compliance and infrastructure layer for institutions seeking to move capital onchain within a registered securities framework.