Code Neutrality Revolution: SEC declares open-source code development won’t constitute securities issuance, protecting developers from third-party misuse liability.
Self-Custody Constitutional Rights: Americans gain official recognition for inalienable crypto asset self-custody rights, legitimizing decentralized finance participation.
Innovation Sandbox Framework: New conditional exemption mechanism allows DeFi projects rapid product launches while maintaining essential compliance standards.
SEC Chairman Paul Atkins announces three groundbreaking DeFi policies: code developer immunity, self-custody rights protection, and innovation exemption frameworks, triggering massive market surge.
REGULATORY TURNING POINT: FROM “ENFORCEMENT CRACKDOWN” TO “INNOVATION SANDBOX”
On June 9, 2025, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins delivered a groundbreaking speech at the “DeFi and American Spirit” roundtable. His words dropped like a bombshell across the crypto world. The industry calls this new chairman “the wise one.” Moreover, he completely reversed Gary Gensler’s regulatory approach with three key policy declarations.
First, code developers won’t face liability for third-party misuse. Second, users maintain sacred self-custody rights. Third, the SEC will establish “innovation exemption” mechanisms for DeFi experimentation. Binance founder CZ called this speech the beginning of “DeFi Day.” Additionally, major protocol tokens like AAVE and UNI surged over 13% in a single day.
This regulatory philosophy revolution marks America’s breakthrough from applying century-old laws to emerging technologies. Atkins used a brilliant analogy to reveal the change’s core: “Requiring autonomous vehicle developers to answer for criminals using their cars is absurd. Similarly, holding DeFi code developers liable makes no sense.”
THREE POLICY PILLARS: UNLOCKING TRILLION-DOLLAR MARKET WEALTH
Code Neutrality Principle: Rebuilding Developer “Immunity Shield”
Atkins first clarified the “technology innocence” stance at the regulatory level. He stated: “Publishing open-source code should not be viewed as securities issuance.” This statement directly overturns the SEC’s previous charges against Tornado Cash developers. Furthermore, it completely rejects the “code as crime” regulatory tendency.
For the industry, this means previously stalled DeFi infrastructure innovation will regain momentum. The core driver of DeFi Summer 2020—permissionless rapid experimentation—will restart under compliance frameworks. Developers won’t worry about lawsuits from smart contract bugs or user misconduct. Consequently, privacy protocols and oracle networks now face value reassessment.
Property Rights Declaration: Constitutional-Level Recognition of Self-Custody
“Self-custody is an inalienable basic right for Americans. This right shouldn’t disappear when assets move on-chain,” Atkins declared. His statement legitimizes crypto asset self-custody rights from a constitutional perspective.
This directly benefits liquid staking sectors. Previously, the SEC labeled protocols like Lido (LDO) and Rocket Pool (RETH) as “unregistered securities.” Now, their business models receive official endorsement for the first time. The deeper impact involves Coinbase and Kraken potentially accelerating on-chain staking services. This opens channels for traditional financial institutions’ trillion-dollar funds to enter DeFi.
Innovation Exemption Framework: Opening Compliance Testing Ground
Most exciting for the industry, the SEC announced a “conditional exemption framework.” This allows DeFi projects to rapidly launch innovative products while maintaining anti-fraud and disclosure standards. This “regulatory sandbox” model provides incubation space for RWA (Real World Assets) and on-chain bonds. Additionally, it gives institutional investors controlled-risk participation paths.
Traditional giants like JPMorgan and Société Générale confirm this trend. The former deployed enterprise-grade bond trading platforms on Ethereum. Meanwhile, the latter issued a compliant stablecoin USDCV on Solana.
MARKET UPHEAVAL: FROM FOMO CELEBRATION TO ECOSYSTEM RECONSTRUCTION
After policy announcements, DeFi markets showed three explosive reactions:
Token Value Reassessment: Blue-chip protocol tokens like AAVE and UNI averaged over 12% gains in 24 hours. Meanwhile, emerging protocols like JITOSOL and ONDO followed with 5%+ increases.
TVL (Total Value Locked) Surge: Ethereum DeFi ecosystem TVL added $18 billion in one week. This created the highest growth rate since the 2024 bull market began.
Accelerated Institutional Positioning: BlackRock’s Ethereum spot ETF exceeded $30 billion in assets under management. Similarly, Goldman Sachs’ on-chain treasury products raised $4.7 billion in their first week.
However, market transformation extends far beyond price volatility. Atkins’ new policies essentially reconstruct DeFi’s competitive dimensions:
Compliance Products: On-chain KYC modules, RWA issuance protocols, and institutional DEXs become new hotspots.
Technology Arms Race: After Ethereum sharding implementation, 2000 TPS processing capacity attracts algorithmic stablecoins and derivatives protocols for large-scale migration.
CeDeFi Integration: Coinbase launches compliant liquid staking services. Traditional finance and on-chain protocols show deep integration.
FUTURE CHALLENGES: COLD THINKING AMID CELEBRATION
Despite regulatory relaxation opening new opportunities, the industry must guard against three major risks:
Blurred Exemption Boundaries: “Innovation exemption” implementation details remain unpublished. Therefore, protocols might still cross red lines due to misunderstanding “conditional compliance.”
Technical Stress Testing: Ethereum L2 network gas fees dropped below 0.001 ETH. However, MEV (Maximum Extractable Value) attacks and oracle data delays still test ecosystem resilience.
Geopolitical Variables: November’s US election results might affect policy continuity. Consequently, some projects have already initiated “regulatory arbitrage” structures for contingencies.
CONCLUSION: DEFI’S COMING OF AGE AND CRYPTO CIVILIZATION’S NEW BEGINNING
Atkins’ new policies’ deepest significance lies in recognizing DeFi not as a traditional finance replacement, but as human property systems and financial infrastructure evolution. When code rights and property rights jointly enter regulatory charters, this experiment rooted in cypherpunk spirit finally passes its compliance “coming of age.”
As Vitalik said during the ETH Shanghai upgrade: “Blockchain isn’t rebuilding financial systems—it’s redefining value flow grammar.” This regulatory shift perhaps writes the first punctuation mark recognized by the mainstream world for this new grammar.
〈SEC’s New DeFi Policies Ignite Summer Innovation: Code Innocence, Property Rights, and Creative Freedom〉這篇文章最早發佈於《CoinRank》。
