OTC Markets CEO: 250 years of market history just collided with a new SEC rule

In 2026, the SEC has moved on two fronts that will define the next chapter of American public markets.

On January 28, it confirmed that tokenized securities remain securities .

In May, it proposed the most significant overhaul of the registered-offering framework in more than 20 years.

Both are part of a story 250 years in the making.

As CEO of OTC Markets Group, which operates regulated markets for U.S. and international securities, I have a direct view into why both matter.

That view is rooted in two-and-a-half centuries of market evolution.

In 1792, a handful of brokers gathered beneath a buttonwood tree on Wall Street and agreed to trade securities among themselves, a private club where prices were negotiated in person.

Information moved slowly, unevenly, and often not at all.

That opacity was the defining feature of early American public markets, and improving the quality and availability of information has been the central project of every generation since.

The history of American public markets is a history of expanding access.

From the New York Price Current in 1795 to our predecessor, the National Quotation Bureau, in 1911, telegraph, ticker tape, and telephone each moved information faster and widened the market.

The securities reforms of the 1930s gave that expanding market a legal foundation.

Larger companies seeking public capital would register with the SEC, file financial statements, and give investors the information they needed to make rational decisions.

The disclosure-based principle was clear: let investors decide the merits and value of investments.