After a 13-page letter from funding powerhouse Citadel Securities suggested the U.S. Securities and Alternate Fee that decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols dealing with tokenized securities demand a more in-depth regulatory grip, the business answered again with its personal correspondence on Friday, calling the arguments “baseless.”
“Whereas we share Citadel’s goals with respect to investor protections, orderly markets, and the integrity of the nationwide market system, we disagree that reaching these targets all the time necessitates registration as conventional SEC intermediaries and can’t, in sure circumstances, be met by means of thoughtfully designed onchain markets,” in line with the brand new letter to the SEC, signed by the DeFi Training Fund, enterprise capital agency Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), the DigitalChamber, Orca Artistic, lawyer J.W. Verret and the Uniswap Basis.
Citadel Securities contended that DeFi protocols could function as exchanges or brokerages in want of registration and regulation. Nevertheless, this 12 months’s new administration of the SEC beneath President Donald Trump has been looking for methods to offer the crypto business extra coverage leeway. And White Home crypto adviser Patrick Witt simply posted on social media web site X that his workplace helps the “want to guard software program builders and DeFi.”
“As detailed in our remark letters, Citadel Securities strongly helps tokenization and different improvements that may reinforce America’s management in digital finance, however this doesn’t require sacrificing the rigorous investor protections which have made U.S. fairness markets the worldwide gold normal,” a spokesperson mentioned in an emailed remark.
Citadel’s letter included “a number of factual mischaracterizations and deceptive statements,” in line with the DeFi coalition’s response. And a DeFi Training Fund spokeswoman, Jennifer Rosenthal, instructed the agency is defending its enterprise pursuits.
“It’s handy for Citadel to query the existence of a know-how that threatens its enterprise and vital market share,” Rosenthal mentioned.
