The Legal Mess of the CNV: How they Sanctioned Atomico 3 in July and are Now Repeating their Own Mistake

The National Securities Commission recently published General Resolution No. 1087/2025, a text that aims to regulate asset tokenization, but in reality highlights the inconsistency that governs the institution

The National Securities Commission (CNV) has once again demonstrated its profound legal and technical improvisation with the publication of General Resolution No. 1087/2025, a text that purports to regulate asset tokenization but in reality highlights the institutional incoherence and disorder that governs the agency. What the CNV calls "regulatory innovation" today is nothing more than a poorly executed copy of the model developed by Atómico 3, the same model that the CNV itself arbitrarily sanctioned just two months ago, on July 14, 2025. This level of contradiction is the clearest example of the biggest legal blunder in the Argentine financial system in recent years.

The CNV says that it now enables the digital representation of real-world assets, but it does so by repeating the traditional structure of financial trusts, stocks, and negotiable obligations. It does not understand—nor does it want to understand—that tokenization is not an extension of the capital market, but rather a technological revolution that redefines the very concept of value. By copying and pasting old schemes into a new text, the CNV is trying to control what it does not understand and is making the same mistake again: confusing negotiable value with digital value. Negotiable securities fall under its jurisdiction; tokenized assets do not. Therefore, attempting to regulate tokenization from the CNV is legally nonsensical.

Atómico 3 was unfairly sanctioned in July 2025 for tokenizing mining assets with blockchain traceability under a fully legal framework. The CNV alleged, without foundation, that AT3 tokens represented unauthorized negotiable securities. In reality, what we did was apply a tokenized certification system to mining assets in three phases: embryonic, certified, and productive, with a platform that validates each stage and guarantees total transparency of the process. The token does not represent a share or a negotiable obligation: it represents a digitized, verified, and traceable physical asset. Our structure was designed precisely to avoid any legal ambiguity, and yet the CNV decided to fine us.

The Atómico 3 model did not come about by chance. It is the result of years of technical, legal, and technological work in mining traceability, applied under national regulations and within international certification standards, such as NI 43-101 and JORC. What we developed was a digital certification platform capable of validating geological and production information at each stage of a project: from the embryonic stage—where the first reports and explorations are defined—through the certified stage—involving technical auditors and regulatory validations—to the production stage, which corresponds to the actual development and extraction of the resource. That is the true innovation of Atómico 3: transforming technical and legal data into traceable digital value.

However, instead of recognizing this progress, the CNV decided to sanction the company for doing what they themselves are now trying to regulate. Two months after that sanction, they published Resolution 1087/25 stating that the "tokenization of real-world assets" is now permissible. In other words, they sanctioned Atómico 3 for being ahead of its time and then copied its model to present it as an institutional achievement. What the CNV is doing is not legislating: it is justifying its own mistake. There is no legal, technical, or ethical consistency.

The text of this resolution falls into the same trap again: talking about innovation while confining the concept within traditional capital market instruments. They continue to regulate financial trusts, stocks, CEDEARs, mutual funds, but say nothing about tokenized real assets outside the stock market circuit. Non-financial digital assets—such as those represented by Atómico 3—are not within their jurisdiction. They were not in July, and they are not now. But the CNV persists in its intention to control what exceeds its powers, showing an alarming lack of judgment.

The resolution also exposes its moral contradiction. For months, the CNV maintained that digital broadcasts must be listed on authorized markets. That was the excuse used to suspend us and publicly spread a false narrative. Today, in their own text, they remove that requirement and acknowledge that when an offering is 100% digital, it no longer needs to be listed. So why did they sanction Atómico 3 if we were applying exactly that technical principle? The answer is simple: because the system does not support those who get ahead, and Atómico 3 got ahead of everything.

While the world moves toward the real tokenization of commodities, energy, lithium, and industrial assets, the CNV remains stuck in the last century. Instead of understanding blockchain as a transparent and traceable registry, it interprets it as a threat to its control structure. Instead of accompanying modernization, it slows it down. And instead of promoting development, it punishes innovation. That mentality explains why Argentina continues to lose global competitiveness: not because of a lack of talent, but because of excessive bureaucracy.

Atómico 3 was sanctioned not for breaking the law, but for complying with it before they knew how to apply it. We created a regulated, transparent, open, and real-time validatable model, with public and verifiable information on the blockchain. No other company in the region had achieved that level of traceability. Today, with this resolution, the CNV ends up recognizing—without admitting it—that our path was the right one. But its contradiction does not erase the damage caused: the suspension, defamation, and persecution were unjust and arbitrary.

What this resolution demonstrates is that Atómico 3 was a pioneer and the CNV was merely a late imitator. We talk about real-world assets; they are just discovering them. We developed certified traceability; they mention it without understanding it. We created a phased certification system—embryonic, certified, and productive—they reduce it to an empty technicality. And while they write resolutions, we write history.

The CNV cannot continue to use the power of the state to hide its own technical incompetence. It cannot approve a project in July and copy it in October. It cannot talk about digital modernization while maintaining analog criteria. It cannot continue to confuse the legal with the political or the technical with the financial. This body needs transparency, professionalism, and humility to acknowledge its mistakes.

Atómico 3 will continue to be the benchmark for true legal, transparent, and traceable tokenization in the region. Our mission remains the same: to demonstrate that value comes from information, transparency, and verification, not bureaucratic control. And if today the world is talking about real-world assets, it is because Atómico 3 paved the way. What the CNV calls a resolution, we call a revolution.

Pablo Rutigliano

CEO & Founder – Atómico 3 S.A.

President – Latin American Chamber of Lithium (Calbamérica)