The financial industry is pushing for the deregulation of the stock market

In recent years, the historical development of the public stock market in the United States has shown interesting trends of change. Starting from the 1920s, in response to the stock market crash and the Great Depression, the government introduced a series of regulations to regulate the public stock market. These regulations require listed companies to disclose detailed business information, publish audited financial statements, and promptly disclose significant events.

However, as time goes by, the importance of the private equity market is becoming increasingly prominent. Many star tech companies can now raise billions of dollars at valuations of hundreds of billions of dollars without going public. This trend has led to a problem: ordinary investors cannot participate in these exciting investment opportunities.

To address this issue, some people have proposed several possible solutions, including simplifying the listing process, strengthening the regulation of private companies, or restructuring the economy and wealth distribution. However, the most radical proposal is to directly abolish the rules for listed companies, allowing any company to sell shares to the public without mandatory disclosure or auditing.

The cryptocurrency industry has discovered a possible "shortcut": raising funds by issuing "tokens" without having to comply with traditional securities laws. This practice is currently gaining support from some major players in the financial sector.

Recently, a well-known trading platform announced the launch of tokenized stocks and gave away private company tokens to some users as a promotion. The head of the platform's crypto business stated that this is to address the historical issue of investment inequality.

However, we must recognize that "allowing the public to invest in private enterprises" is essentially a paradox. The core characteristic of private enterprises is that they are not open to the public and are not subject to the disclosure requirements of public companies. Therefore, "allowing the public to invest in private enterprises" is actually equivalent to "allowing companies to sell shares to the public without disclosing information."

Some leaders in the financial sector are advocating for this practice, believing that tokenization can eliminate investment barriers and allow more people to access high returns. However, this practice is actually seeking to circumvent existing information disclosure rules.

Although the practice of directly selling "tokens" of private company stocks to the public in the United States without disclosing information has not yet fully succeeded, many major players in the financial sector are actively promoting this direction. This trend seems to be seeking a way to make the stock market more like the cryptocurrency market, rather than making the cryptocurrency market more like a regulated stock market.

This development trend deserves our close attention, as it may have far-reaching implications for future financial market regulation and investor protection.