SEC Moves Toward 24/7 Trading: What It Means for Crypto Accounting
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission held a formal roundtable on September 17, 2026, to examine what extending traditional securities markets to around-the-clock trading would actually require. The session ran just one hour after the agency issued an order allowing firms to begin tokenized securities trading under a five-year regulatory relief window. For accounting firms, CFOs, and auditors with digital asset exposure, the two moves together signal a structural shift that will ripple through trade capture, reconciliation cycles, and financial reporting well before any new rules take effect.
What the SEC Actually Said
SEC Chairman Paul Atkins opened the roundtable by framing the expansion in plain terms: tradeable events do not respect the boundaries of a 9-to-4 session, and investors should be able to react to news in real time regardless of when it breaks. "We're moving of course to a new day — and night," Atkins told the audience of securities lawyers gathered at the agency's Washington headquarters.
The tokenization connection
Atkins directly linked the 24/7 trading discussion to the agency's parallel move on tokenization. In his view, tokenized securities could enable real-time inventory management for broker-dealers, reduce settlement failures, and help eliminate abusive naked short-selling. He said he has asked SEC staff to identify steps that would pair a "growth-friendly environment" with adequate protections against harmful market behaviour. The agency's order issued that same morning grants firms a five-year period during which tokenized securities trading can proceed without the full weight of existing securities regulation bearing down on them immediately.
Commissioner Peirce's candid warnings
Commissioner Hester Peirce acknowledged the obvious reference point: "Crypto markets certainly don't sleep." But she did not present that as an unqualified positive. Firms considering longer trading hours, she said, may face wider bid-ask spreads, greater price volatility, reduced capacity to manage technology incidents, and monitoring gaps in the hours when human oversight is thinnest. She also flagged a reputational risk that will resonate with any IR or compliance team: overnight social media events moving a stock price while a company's communications desk is off the clock.
Despite those cautions, Atkins indicated momentum is real. Several preparatory steps are already underway at the agency, though no specific timetable for mandatory extended hours was announced at the roundtable.
Why This Matters for Accounting Firms and CFOs
The accounting implications of 24/7 equities trading are not hypothetical. Crypto markets have operated continuously for over a decade, and the profession has had to adapt its processes accordingly. The SEC now moving traditional securities in the same direction means those adaptations are about to become relevant to a far broader universe of clients and reporting entities.
Trade capture and cut-off timing
Current period-end close processes assume a defined trading day. If securities can trade at 2 a.m. on a Sunday, accountants need clear policies on which transactions fall into which reporting period. For firms already handling digital assets, this is a familiar challenge. For audit teams focused on traditional equities, it introduces new complexity around trade-date versus settlement-date accounting under ASC 320 and ASC 321, or under IFRS 9 for any entities reporting under international standards. Cut-off testing will need to expand beyond the traditional last trading day of the period.
Fair value measurement at non-standard times
ASC 820 and IFRS 13 require entities to measure fair value at the measurement date using observable market prices where available. If a reporting entity holds securities that can now trade overnight, auditors will need to assess whether the price used at a balance-sheet date reflects an active market or a thin, low-liquidity window. Crypto-native firms are already familiar with this question. Equities firms are not, and the gap in institutional knowledge is significant.
Reconciliation and technology readiness
Middle- and back-office teams currently rely on overnight batch windows to reconcile positions, process corporate actions, and prepare for the next session. Continuous trading removes that window. Firms will need either real-time reconciliation infrastructure or clearly documented manual procedures covering off-hours periods. Commissioner Peirce's reference to limited human involvement in overnight hours points directly to this operational gap. Robust crypto accounting software that handles continuous-time ledger entries is no longer a specialist concern; it becomes a baseline expectation.
The Tokenized Securities Order: A Distinct but Related Issue
The five-year regulatory relief window the SEC granted on the same morning is worth treating separately from the 24/7 trading discussion, even though Atkins linked them thematically. The order creates a defined space in which firms can operate tokenized securities trading without immediately triggering the full set of existing securities regulations. That does not mean those firms are unregulated; it means the agency is deliberately creating room for the infrastructure to develop before locking in a final ruleset.
What "five-year relief" actually means for reporting
Regulatory relief on trading operations does not translate into accounting relief. A tokenized security is still a security for financial reporting purposes. An entity holding tokenized equities or debt instruments still applies the same recognition, measurement, and disclosure requirements as it would for their conventional equivalents. The relief is operational and regulatory in nature; it does not alter how the instrument appears on a balance sheet or income statement. Firms advising clients entering this space should be clear on that distinction from day one.
Custody and control considerations
Tokenized securities held on distributed ledgers raise questions about custody arrangements that auditors will need to address. Who controls the private keys? Is the custodian a qualified custodian under applicable rules? How are transfers recorded and evidenced for audit purposes? These are questions the crypto industry has been working through for years. For traditional securities firms entering the tokenized space under the new relief window, they are largely unfamiliar terrain. The SEC's parallel work on market structure, covered in our earlier analysis of the Clarity Act failure and its implications for SEC and CFTC rulemaking, provides useful context on where the regulatory boundary questions currently sit.
Practical Steps for Accounting and Audit Teams
The roundtable did not produce new rules. It produced a clear signal of direction. Accounting and audit teams that wait for final regulations before updating their processes will find themselves behind. The steps worth taking now are preparatory and low-regret.
Review period-end cut-off policies
Any client or entity with securities holdings should have its existing cut-off policy documented and stress-tested against the scenario of overnight or weekend trading. If the policy references the "close of the New York Stock Exchange" as a proxy for measurement time, that reference needs to be reconsidered. A policy that worked when markets closed at 4 p.m. Eastern may produce inconsistent results if the same securities trade at midnight.
Assess fair value source hierarchies
Audit committees and CFOs should ask their auditors now whether the firm's fair value measurement framework can accommodate prices sourced from non-standard trading hours. If the primary price source is a Level 1 observable input from a regulated exchange, what happens when that exchange operates continuously? Does the entity's policy specify which price point on a given day constitutes the measurement-date price? These questions have answers, but they need to be documented before year-end rather than during fieldwork.
Evaluate technology infrastructure against continuous settlement
For firms already using digital asset accounting software, the transition to continuous equities trading is less disruptive because the underlying infrastructure may already handle 24/7 ledger entries. For firms whose back-office systems were designed around a defined trading day, a gap analysis is warranted. This is not a small project; it is the kind of assessment that requires input from operations, technology, compliance, and finance simultaneously.
Monitor SEC staff guidance
Atkins stated that staff work is already underway. That means guidance, no-action letters, or rule proposals could emerge on a shorter timeline than a formal rulemaking calendar might suggest. Firms should ensure they have a process for monitoring SEC releases in this area, including both the market structure and tokenization workstreams, which are now explicitly linked at the chairman level.
The Broader Market Structure Picture
This roundtable did not happen in isolation. The SEC has been operating in an environment where the absence of comprehensive crypto market structure legislation, following the failure of the CLARITY Act in the Senate, has pushed the agency toward using its existing authority more actively. The 24/7 trading initiative and the tokenization relief order are both products of that environment. For firms tracking the regulatory landscape, the connection between these moves and the agency's broader posture on digital assets is important context.
Commissioner Peirce's framing, that crypto markets "don't sleep," is not a criticism of crypto; it is a recognition that the SEC's traditional market structure assumptions were built for a different era. The question for accounting and audit professionals is not whether this shift is coming, but how fast and in what sequence. The roundtable suggests the agency believes the answer to "how fast" is: faster than a conventional rulemaking process would normally allow.
Source: CoinDesk Policy
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the SEC's 24/7 trading initiative change how securities are accounted for right now?
No immediate accounting rule changes have been issued. The roundtable was a policy consultation, not a rulemaking. However, firms should review their period-end cut-off policies and fair value measurement frameworks now, because those will need updating before any final rules take effect.
Are tokenized securities treated differently from conventional securities under US GAAP or IFRS?
The form of a security, whether tokenized or conventional, does not determine its accounting treatment. A tokenized equity instrument is still measured under ASC 321 or IFRS 9 depending on classification. The SEC's five-year regulatory relief window applies to trading operations, not to financial reporting requirements.
What is the main audit risk introduced by overnight or weekend trading?
The primary risk is around period-end cut-off and fair value measurement. If securities can trade at times that were previously inactive, auditors need to confirm that the prices used for balance-sheet valuations reflect an appropriate and documented measurement point, and that all trades executed before the reporting date are captured in the correct period.
How does this connect to firms already handling digital assets?
Digital asset accounting teams have operated in a continuous-time environment for years. Their experience with 24/7 trade capture, real-time reconciliation, and non-standard fair value sourcing is directly applicable to the challenges traditional securities firms will now face. Firms with established digital asset accounting software workflows are better positioned to adapt.
When might the SEC issue formal rules on extended trading hours?
No specific timeline was announced at the roundtable. Chairman Atkins indicated that preparatory work is already underway at the staff level. Given the agency's current posture of using existing authority actively rather than waiting for legislation, guidance or proposed rules could emerge within the next several months, though no date has been confirmed.