I believe there is a lot of things inter-connected.

What would be the point of bringing out the SMT protocol without fixing the sign up process and having that automated? Why would you automate the sign up process if you didnt upgrade the back end to be able to handle tens of millions of people? Bringing out the SMT before the exchange is totally redesigned to handle unlimited numbers of tokens means that you would have anyone using it be in a non-liquid situation and have no outlet for the tokens that are created.