DeFi Education Fund Urges SEC to Formalize DeFi Broker Guidance into Rulemaking

Gate News message, April 25 — The DeFi Education Fund and 35 other crypto industry leaders are urging the Securities and Exchange Commission to formalize its recent decentralized finance interface guidance into formal rulemaking. In a letter sent to the SEC this week, the groups pressed the agency to conduct rulemaking following a statement released on April 13 that clarified certain user interface providers, such as DeFi wallets, do not need to register as broker-dealers.

The crypto organizations called for the SEC to adopt a principles-based framework that provides clear, objective criteria for when activity falls within the definition of “broker.” “Finalizing these principles would provide the legal certainty needed to support responsible innovation while preserving the Commission’s ability to regulate the intermediaries that pose the risks that the broker-dealer regulatory regime was designed to address,” the groups stated. The SEC outlined scenarios where an interface could be considered a broker-dealer, including if it solicits investors, makes investment recommendations, or influences order routing decisions.

Signatories to the letter include Crypto Council for Innovation, the Blockchain Association, Solana Policy Institute, Aave Labs, Andreessen Horowitz, Uniswap Labs, and Mysten Labs. While the groups called the SEC’s statement “an important step,” they warned that informal guidance carries risks. “It is critically important that the Commission prevent an overly expansive interpretation of the term ‘broker’ from existing now or being revived in five years,” they cautioned.