Golden Finance reported that Paul Atkins, the chairperson of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), announced at the crypto roundtable that an “innovation exemption” policy for DeFi platforms is being formulated. This news has drawn widespread attention from the crypto community. Hayden Adams, the CEO of Uniswap Labs, commented on this in an article, pointing out that the rapid development speed of DeFi is astonishing. Maker, Compound and Uniswap were launched one after another in 2018. The emergence of these platforms marked the beginning of the DeFi movement. Before that, the term “DeFi” did not even exist. Nowadays, the statement made by the chairperson of the SEC indicates that US government agencies have publicly recognized DeFi as a national priority.
At this crypto roundtable, Atkins stated that he has instructed SEC staff to study the modification of institutional rules, aiming to provide necessary convenience for issuers and intermediaries to manage the on-chain financial system. He referred to this potential exemption relief as an “innovation exemption”, which is expected to enable entities under the jurisdiction of the SEC to quickly bring on-chain products and services to the market. This move is regarded as a major shift in the SEC’s crypto regulatory policy, reflecting its recognition of the innovative potential of DeFi and its determination to adjust the regulatory framework to adapt to the development of blockchain technology.
Adams believes that DeFi has grown from nothing to become a significant force in the crypto field within just a few years, and this development process is of great significance. Numerous DeFi projects have broken through many limitations of the traditional financial system through decentralized financial services, providing global users with more open, efficient and fair financial service options. Nowadays, the SEC regards DeFi as a national priority, indicating that the United States may adopt a more proactive and flexible attitude in DeFi regulation in the future, creating a more favorable policy environment for the industry’s development. This is not only a great benefit for projects like Uniswap that have already achieved remarkable success in the DeFi field, but also will attract more innovators and investors to devote themselves to the construction and development of the DeFi ecosystem.
Furthermore, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce also emphasized at the meeting that the SEC should not regulate code publishers merely because the code published by someone is used by others to carry out activities under the SEC’s traditional supervision, thereby infringing upon their First Amendment rights. But she also pointed out that centralized entities cannot evade regulation merely by attaching the label of “decentralized”. This view further clarifies that the SEC will comprehensively consider the actual operation mode of the platform when regulating DeFi, rather than simply determining whether to regulate based on the decentralized attribute, which is conducive to building a clearer and more reasonable regulatory boundary for the DeFi industry. As the SEC’s “Innovation Exemption” policy advances and its regulatory attitude towards DeFi becomes increasingly clear, the crypto community is closely monitoring the subsequent policy details and implementation progress, looking forward to the formation of a more standardized and dynamic DeFi market environment.
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