U.S. SEC Chair Says Working on 'Innovation Exemption' for DeFi Platforms

Description

SEC Chair Paul Atkins announced plans for a potential "innovation exemption" to ease regulatory barriers for DeFi platforms, signaling a shift toward more developer-friendly crypto policies.

Authors

Jesse Hamilton

Publish date

June 9, 2025

Publisher

CoinDesk

Web URL

https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2025/06/09/u-s-sec-chair-says-working-on-innovation-exemption-for-defi-platforms

Referenced by

Paul Atkins calls self-custody a foundational American value

Crypto news

News story

The chairman told a roundtable of DeFi experts on Monday that he's directed the SEC staff to look into changes to agency rules "to provide needed accommodation for issuers and intermediaries to seek to administer on-chain financial systems." Atkins called that potential exemptive relief "an innovation exemption" that would let entities under SEC jurisdiction bring on-chain products and services to market "expeditiously."

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"Many entrepreneurs are developing software applications that are designed to function without administration by any operator," Atkins said in remarks at the event. While he noted the technology enabling private peer-to-peer transactions can "sound like science fiction," he said "blockchain technology makes possible an entirely new class of software that can perform these functions without an intermediary."

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