The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is sending strong signals, indicating a more open legal era for decentralized finance (DeFi). On June 9th, the SEC's crypto task force held a forum titled 'DeFi and the American Spirit', as part of the strategy to reshape digital finance policy under President Donald Trump. The SEC is now actively listening to the DeFi community to find new directions in regulation.
The discussion featured Chairman Paul Atkins and the commissioners. They directly addressed the barriers that DeFi is facing. While centralized exchanges are easier to monitor, DeFi has long been placed in a 'gray area', causing developers to endure suspicion and heavy scrutiny simply for... coding.
Chairman Paul Atkins has revealed that the SEC is developing a legal exemption policy for decentralized platforms. This new mechanism, called the 'Innovation Exemption', will support both registered and unregistered organizations in bringing on-chain financial products to market legally, quickly, and with minimal barriers.
Atkins and the Republican commissioners emphasized that programmers cannot be blamed simply because others use their products for financial purposes. Commissioner Hester Peirce added: 'The SEC must not violate free speech rights... by holding an individual accountable just for releasing source code.' However, she also warned that centralized organizations cannot evade regulation by labeling themselves as decentralized.
Chairman Paul Atkins also affirmed: 'The right to self-manage personal assets is a core value of America.' This means that individuals have the right to own and control their personal wallets, without being forced to hand assets over to a third party – a significant change from the previous SEC administration.
The appearance of Erik Voorhees, the founder of ShapeShift, at the event also indicates a positive shift in the SEC's perspective. Furthermore, the SEC has confirmed that users voluntarily participating in Proof-of-Work or Proof-of-Stake systems (such as miners, validators, third-party stakers) are not subject to federal securities laws. These moves promise to usher in a new era for DeFi in the U.S.