Notice2025-10173

In the Matter of the Application of Dream Exchange Holdings, Inc. for Registration as a National Securities Exchange; Order Instituting Proceedings To Determine Whether To Grant or Deny an Application for Registration as a National Securities Exchange Under Section 6 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934

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Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.

Published
June 4, 2025

Issuing agencies

Securities and Exchange Commission

Full Text

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<title>Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 106 (Wednesday, June 4, 2025)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 106 (Wednesday, June 4, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 23751-23753]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2025-10173]


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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

[Release No. 34-103157; File No. 010-00248]


In the Matter of the Application of Dream Exchange Holdings, Inc. 
for Registration as a National Securities Exchange; Order Instituting 
Proceedings To Determine Whether To Grant or Deny an Application for 
Registration as a National Securities Exchange Under Section 6 of the 
Securities Exchange Act of 1934

May 30, 2025.

I. Introduction

    On February 14, 2025, Dream Exchange Holdings, Inc. (``DreamEx'') 
filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (``Commission'') a 
Form 1 application (``Form 1'') under the Securities Exchange Act of 
1934 (``Act''), seeking registration as a national securities exchange 
under Section 6 of the Act.\1\ Notice of the application was published 
for comment in the Federal Register on March 3, 2025.\2\ The Commission 
has not received any comments on the Form 1.
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    \1\ 15 U.S.C. 78f.
    \2\ See Securities Exchange Act Release No. 102484 (Feb. 25, 
2025), 90 FR 11078.
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    Section 19(a)(1) of the Act \3\ requires the Commission, within 
ninety days of the date of publication of notice of an application for 
registration as a national securities exchange, or such longer period 
as to which the applicant consents, to, by order, grant such 
registration \4\ or institute proceedings to determine whether such 
registration should be denied.\5\ This order is instituting proceedings 
under Section 19(a)(1)(B) of the Act \6\ to determine whether DreamEx's 
application for registration as a national securities exchange should 
be granted or denied, and provides notice of the grounds for

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denial under consideration by the Commission, as set forth below.
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    \3\ 15 U.S.C. 78s(a)(1).
    \4\ 15 U.S.C. 78s(a)(1)(A).
    \5\ 15 U.S.C. 78a(a)(1)(B).
    \6\ 15 U.S.C. 78s(a)(1)(B).
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II. Overview of DreamEx's Trading System

    DreamEx proposes to operate a fully automated electronic trading 
platform for the trading of NMS stocks with a continuous automated 
matching function. DreamEx would not maintain a physical trading floor. 
Liquidity would be derived from orders to buy and orders to sell 
submitted to DreamEx electronically by its registered broker-dealer 
members from remote locations. DreamEx proposes to have one class of 
membership open to registered broker-dealers and also proposes to allow 
members to register under DreamEx rules as market makers on DreamEx and 
be subject to certain specified requirements and obligations set forth 
in DreamEx's proposed rules. DreamEx would be a subsidiary of its 
parent companies: DX Capital Partners, LLC, which would own 50.1% of 
the common stock of DreamEx; Dream Exchange LLC, which would own 49.9% 
of the common stock of DreamEx; and Dream Exchange Preferred Holdings 
LLC, which would own 100% of the preferred stock of DreamEx. DreamEx's 
proposed rulebook is Exhibit B to DreamEx's Form 1, and the governing 
documents for DreamEx and its parent companies can be found in Exhibit 
A and C, respectively.\7\
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    \7\ DreamEx's Form 1, including all its exhibits, is available 
at: <a href="https://www.sec.gov/rules-regulations/other-commission-orders-notices-information/dream-exchange-form-1">https://www.sec.gov/rules-regulations/other-commission-orders-notices-information/dream-exchange-form-1</a>.
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    DreamEx proposes to enter into a technology services agreement with 
MEMX Technologies, LLC (``MEMX Technologies'') to license the 
technology underlying the DreamEx trading platform (``Agreement'').\8\ 
DreamEx would not own the trading technology and systems (``System'') 
developed by MEMX Technologies.
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    \8\ MEMX Technologies is affiliated with MEMX LLC (``MEMX 
Exchange''), a registered national securities exchange. MEMX 
Exchange is not a party to the Agreement. See Exhibit E to DreamEx's 
Form 1 (discussing the proposed Agreement in greater detail).
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    Generally, the Agreement would govern (1) the delivery and 
licensing of certain software and hardware for operation of the System, 
(2) the development and testing of software necessary for connectivity 
to DreamEx and/or third-party developed functions and certain other 
software necessary to support trading on DreamEx, and (3) the provision 
of certain operational and support services related to the System.\9\ 
DreamEx states that the service levels to be provided under the 
Agreement would ensure that it can meet its Regulation Systems 
Compliance and Integrity (``Regulation SCI'') obligations.\10\ A more 
detailed description of the manner of operation of DreamEx's proposed 
System can be found in Exhibit E to DreamEx's Form 1.
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    \9\ See Exhibit E to DreamEx's Form 1 at 3.
    \10\ See id. at 4.
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III. Proceedings To Determine Whether To Grant or Deny the Application 
and Grounds for Potential Denial Under Consideration

    As required by Section 19(a)(1)(B) of the Act,\11\ the Commission 
is hereby providing notice of grounds for denial under consideration, 
as set forth below. Institution of such proceedings is appropriate at 
this time in view of the issues raised by the application. Institution 
of proceedings does not indicate that the Commission has reached any 
conclusions with respect to any of the issues involved.
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    \11\ 15 U.S.C. 78s(a)(1)(B).
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    Under Section 19(a)(1) of the Act, the Commission shall grant an 
application for registration as a national securities exchange if the 
Commission finds that the requirements of the Act and the rules and 
regulations thereunder with respect to the applicant are satisfied. The 
Commission shall deny such application for registration if it does not 
make such a finding.\12\ Under Section 6(b) of the Act, an exchange 
shall not be registered as a national securities exchange unless the 
Commission determines that it has satisfied the relevant requirements 
of the Act.\13\ In particular, Section 6(b)(1) of the Act requires that 
the Commission determine that an exchange is so organized and has the 
capacity to carry out the purposes of the Act.\14\ In addition, under 
Section 6(b)(3) of the Act, the Commission must determine that the 
rules of the exchange assure a fair representation of its members in 
the selection of its directors and administration of its affairs and 
provide that one or more directors shall be representative of issuers 
and investors and not be associated with a member of the exchange, 
broker or dealer.\15\ Section 6(b)(5) of the Act requires that the 
rules of the exchange be designed, among other things, to prevent 
fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices, to promote just and 
equitable principles of trade, to foster cooperation and coordination 
with persons engaged in regulating, clearing, settling, processing 
information with respect to, and facilitating transactions in 
securities, to remove impediments to and perfect the mechanisms of a 
free and open market and a national market system, and in general to 
protect investors and the public interest.\16\ Finally, under Section 
6(b)(8) of the Act, the Commission must determine that the rules of the 
exchange do not impose any burden on competition that is not necessary 
or appropriate in furtherance of the purposes of Act.\17\ The 
Commission requests comment on all aspects of DreamEx's Form 1, 
including comment on any specific Exhibits,\18\ as well as any 
information or data that would help the Commission's review of 
DreamEx's Form 1.
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    \12\ 15 U.S.C. 78s(a)(1).
    \13\ 15 U.S.C. 78f.
    \14\ 15 U.S.C. 78f(b)(1).
    \15\ 15 U.S.C. 78f(b)(3).
    \16\ 15 U.S.C. 78f(b)(5).
    \17\ 15 U.S.C. 78f(b)(8).
    \18\ See supra note 7.
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IV. Request for Written Comment

    The Commission requests that interested persons provide written 
views and data with respect to DreamEx's Form 1 and any relevant 
issues. Comments may be submitted by any of the following methods:

Electronic Comments

    <bullet> Use the Commission's internet comment form (<a href="https://www.sec.gov/rules/sro.shtml">https://www.sec.gov/rules/sro.shtml</a>); or
    <bullet> Send an email to <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#592b2c353c743a3634343c372d2a192a3c3a773e362f"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="a8daddc4cd85cbc7c5c5cdc6dcdbe8dbcdcb86cfc7de">[email&#160;protected]</span></a>. Please include 
File No. 010-002448 on the subject line.

Paper Comments

    <bullet> Send paper comments in triplicate to Secretary, Securities 
and Exchange Commission, 100 F Street NE, Washington, DC 20549-1090.
    All submissions should refer to File No. 010-00248. This file 
number should be included on the subject line if email is used. To help 
the Commission process and review your comments more efficiently, 
please use only one method. The Commission will post all comments on 
the Commission's internet website (<a href="https://www.sec.gov/rules/other">https://www.sec.gov/rules/other</a>). 
Copies of the submission, all subsequent amendments, all written 
statements with respect to DreamEx's Form 1 filed with the Commission, 
and all written communications relating to the application between the 
Commission and any person, other than those that may be withheld from 
the public in accordance with the provisions of 5 U.S.C. 552, will be 
available for website viewing and printing in the Commission's Public 
Reference Room, 100 F Street NE, Washington, DC 20549, on official 
business days between the hours of 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Do not include 
personal

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identifiable information in submissions; you should submit only 
information that you wish to make available publicly. We may redact in 
part or withhold entirely from publication submitted material that is 
obscene or subject to copyright protection. All submissions should 
refer to File No. 010-00248 and should be submitted on or before June 
25, 2025.

    By the Commission.
J. Matthew DeLesDernier,
Deputy Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2025-10173 Filed 6-3-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8011-01-P


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