U.S. SEC Chair Says Working on 'Innovation Exemption' for DeFi Platforms

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is working on policy to exempt decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms from regulatory barriers, said Chairman Paul Atkins.

Software developers building DeFi tools have no business being blamed for how they're used, Atkins and other SEC Republicans contended at the final of five crypto roundtables that have been held at the agency since the leadership turnover under President Donald Trump.

The chairman told a roundtable of DeFi experts on Monday that he's directed the SEC staff to look into changes to agency rules "to provide needed accommodation for issuers and intermediaries to seek to administer on-chain financial systems." Atkins called that potential exemptive relief "an innovation exemption" that would let entities under SEC jurisdiction bring on-chain products and services to market "expeditiously."

"Many entrepreneurs are developing software applications that are designed to function without administration by any operator," Atkins said in remarks at the event. While he noted the technology enabling private peer-to-peer transactions can "sound like science fiction," he said "blockchain technology makes possible an entirely new class of software that can perform these functions without an intermediary."

"We should not automatically fear the future," Atkins said.

DeFi is a subsection of the broader cryptocurrency industry that seeks to recreate financial tools and products with code that replaces the role of traditional intermediaries such as banks and brokerages.

The Republican members of the commission — currently outnumbering the Democrat 3-1 — have been eager to move forward with crypto-friendly policy. While DeFi is often given short shrift in policy discussions that focus more on regulation of the higher-volume industry of crypto exchanges, brokers and custodial services. Though DeFi developers have faced years of distrust from U.S. government agencies, Republicans now in power are seeking to lighten those pressures.

"The SEC must not infringe on First Amendment rights by regulating someone who merely published code on the basis that others use that code to carry out activity that the SEC has traditionally regulated," said Commissioner Hester Peirce, who has led the SEC Crypto Task Force established this year. However, she also noted that "centralized entities can't avoid regulation simply by rolling out the decentralized label."

Erik Voorhees, the founder of decentralized exchange ShapeShift, joked that when he got his first SEC subpoena 12 years ago, he didn't think he'd be invited to speak at the agency years later.

"I appreciate the change of tone and the change of stance for the commission," he said. "I think that's absolutely a positive for America."

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