The world of decentralized finance gave a collective shudder this weekend upon learning the Securities and Exchange Commission wants to amend a regulation that defines exchanges. This is the third time the SEC has tweaked its proposed amendment, and the latest version is aimed directly at DeFi platforms.
The long and short of it is that SEC Chair Gary Gensler wants to force DeFi projects such as Uniswap—which lets users swap tokens using a decentralized protocol—to register and operate as a Nasdaq-like exchange. He made this clear during prepared remarks on Friday. “These platforms are acting as if they have a choice to comply with our laws. They don’t,” Gensler clucked.
