Author: Azuma, Odaily
Last night, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) held a roundtable meeting with the theme "DeFi and the American Spirit".
Before this meeting, the SEC had held four roundtable meetings on cryptocurrency topics, but possibly due to the progress of the new SEC Chairman Paul Atkins, the previous meetings did not reveal many concrete and clear policy-oriented contents.
However, last night's meeting was entirely different. Paul Atkins consecutively dropped multiple bombshells in his speech, almost giving DeFi one "golden pass" after another in a stacking buff manner.
Influenced by this positive news, the DeFi sector saw a long-awaited violent surge. As of 11:20 today, the performance of mainstream DeFi tokens is as follows:
- AAVE is currently reported at 289.15 USDT, with a 24-hour increase of 15.54%;
- UNI is currently reported at 7.045 USDT, with a 24-hour increase of 12.85%;
- HYPE is currently reported at 39.15 USDT, with a 24-hour increase of 11.2%;
- Pendle is currently reported at 4.355 USDT, with a 24-hour increase of 14.2%;
- MKR is currently reported at 1980 USDT, with a 24-hour increase of 13.66%;
Current securities regulations are primarily based on the regulation of issuers and intermediaries (such as broker-dealers, advisors, exchanges, and clearing institutions). The rulemakers at the time might not have envisioned that self-executing code would replace these entities.
I believe this sentence is crucial, because it means Paul Atkins has clearly recognized the fundamental difference between on-chain financial products and traditional financial services - relying on code to achieve automated services, which may represent a different perspective that the SEC will adopt in subsequent assessments of on-chain financial issues.
During the period when the committee and its staff are developing regulatory rules suitable for the on-chain financial market, I have instructed staff to consider establishing a conditional exemption framework or an "innovation exemption" mechanism that would enable registered and unregistered entities to quickly launch on-chain products and services.
This is undoubtedly the most significant statement in the text - it will provide clear legal guidance for the launch and operation of DeFi projects during the period before final rules are established, and can be seen as a regulatory relaxation for the entire DeFi industry.
Paul Atkins had previously emphasized his desire to transform the SEC's approach from the previous "post-facto punishment" to "pre-emptive guidance," and this is the specific strategy he has proposed.
In summary, from the perspective of the entire DeFi track, last night's roundtable meeting can almost be regarded as a milestone, representing that the SEC has finally provided a concrete and clear regulatory guideline for this sub-track. For DeFi, which has long been considered the most vital track in the industry but has suffered from regulatory suppression, this may be the beginning of a new spring.
