SEC Chair Paul Atkins backs DeFi, rejects forced intermediaries during latest roundtable speech

US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Paul Atkins told the agency’s fifth cryptocurrency roundtable on June 9 that the ability to hold crypto without an intermediary belongs at the core of US law.

Atkins opened the “DeFi and the American Spirit” session by linking decentralized (DeFi) finance with the country’s traditions of private property rights and open markets. 

He described blockchains as peer-to-peer databases that record ownership of digital assets without central control. Atkins also noted that network participants compete in a fee marketplace to validate transactions and keep ledgers in sync.

He stated:

“The right to have self-custody of one’s private property is a foundational American value that should not disappear when one logs onto the internet.”

The new SEC chair contrasted that model with the prior administration’s approach, saying it sought to discourage participation through enforcement actions and public statements that characterized mining, validating, and staking services as securities activity. 

He credited the Division of Corporation Finance for later clarifying that routine validation work through staking does not fall under federal securities rules but added that the guidance was insufficient because it lacks a rulemaking force. 

Roadmap for on-chain rulemaking

The chairman urged the commission to craft regulations that rely on congressional authority rather than informal staff comment. He argued that forced intermediation introduces costs and restricts on-chain functions such as staking. 

Atkins criticized earlier regulatory actions that labeled wallet developers as unregistered brokers, claiming software publication alone should not trigger securities obligations. 

He likened such enforcement to suing a car company because a driver used an autonomous vehicle to commit a crime. Atkins emphasized that many blockchain applications operate without administrators, which places them outside frameworks written for issuer-centric markets. 

He asked staff to study how registrants can interact with self-executing code while meeting disclosure and custody requirements. The SEC chair also backed amendments that would allow intermediaries to migrate settlement and clearing to blockchains, reducing friction and improving liquidity.

To speed experimentation, Atkins directed staff to design an “innovation exemption” that could grant conditional relief for firms launching on-chain products.

Commission seeks formal proposal

Atkins maintained that the establishment of a durable policy must occur through notice-and-comment rulemaking rather than through ad hoc statements or litigation. 

He added that resilient on-chain protocols continued to process transactions during recent market stresses while several centralized platforms failed.

Atkins concluded that the commission will pursue formal rules and possible exemptions to embed self-custody and decentralized finance within the securities framework without compromising longstanding investor protections.

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