Can the SEC Keep Its DeFi Promises?
Camila Russo & Olivia Capozzalo
June 11, 2025
gm Defiers!
Today’s big story:
- SEC chair Atkins says DeFi should be allowed to flourish — but will the agency’s rules match its new rhetoric?
Plus:
- Bullish files for an IPO: report
- The market cap of PayPal’s PYUSD pushes over $1B
- Ondo launches tokenized treasuries on XRP Ledger
- SSV 2.0 and based applications: Decentralized infrastructure for secure, scalable Ethereum staking [SPONSORED]
Read more below! But first, please give our sponsors some love; they make this newsletter possible.
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SEC Signals New Era for DeFi in the US — But Talk Is Cheap
SEC chair Paul Atkins just delivered the most unapologetically pro-crypto remarks we’ve seen from the agency. From talking up “innovation exemptions” to pledging real rulemaking, Atkins is telegraphing that the days of enforcement by surprise raid are numbered — and the era of predictable, bespoke DeFi rules is coming.
DeFi is as American as apple pie, Atkins said during the final roundtable discussion in a series from the SEC’s new Crypto Task Force. Economic liberty and private property rights are baked right into its code. He reminded listeners that blockchains enable peer-to-peer markets that let people own and move value without gatekeepers; that alignment with core U.S. ideals wasn’t a throwaway line — it was a rallying cry designed to rebrand DeFi as a national asset that needs to be fostered, not reined in.
But it wasn’t just nice words from Atkins. The SEC chair explicitly called for formal rulemaking around mining, staking, and self-custody, insisting that only clear, written rules — not staff memos — can give market participants the confidence to build. Staff are already sketching an “innovation exemption” to fast-track compliant on-chain products, while token classification guidance is slated for proposal soon, he said.
This is huge for DeFi builders, who for years have been playing the “Is This Token is a Security?” game with the SEC. You lose, you go to jail. You win… you never win because the question is never answered.
Old vs. New
Atkins’ predecessor, Gary Gensler, painted crypto as the “Wild West”, warned that “very many” tokens are unregistered securities, and piled on enforcement actions to prove the point. Under Gensler, innovation took a backseat to compliance risk.
Atkins calls for tailored rules, while Gensler said existing, decades-old statutes should be applied to new tech. Atkins has said trading venues could hold digital assets without becoming a broker-dealer, while Gensler said all platforms trading crypto must register with the SEC. Atkins hails DeFi’s decentralization as a core American value, while Gensler focused on how DeFi was decentralized “in name only.”
Atkins’ words are better than music to the crypto industry’s ears, but talk is cheap — so what has the SEC actually done since Atkins took the wheel?
First, they pulled the plug on the 2019 custody guidance that had everyone nervously treating self-custody as an unlicensed broker activity. Then came putting staff enforcement lawsuits on ice and clarifying that many staking services fall outside the securities box.
They’ve hosted roundtables on tokenization and DeFi primitives, rolled out FAQ sheets on crypto, and even signaled carve-outs to Reg ATS — the establishment of a regulatory framework for alternative trading systems — so brokers can list spot BTC and ETH. That’s a seismic shift from surprise enforcement sweeps to open rulemaking.
Judging from Atkins’ latest statement, the SEC will keep taking action. We should expect a rulemaking proposal on the innovation exemption. Also a token classification rule to follow, delineating which assets are securities and which are free to trade like commodities. Reg ATS and custody rules will get a makeover to legitimize self-custody and let broker-dealers handle non-security tokens.
And while stablecoins haven’t been front-and-center yet in his statements, a disclosure-and-reserve-management proposal can’t be far behind, especially with all the stablecoin action in Congress.
All of these moves add up to one thing: supercharging DeFi. Clear rules will slash legal risk, coax institutional capital on-chain, and finally let developers focus on product, not workarounds for rules that lived in Gensler’s head. Atkins’ playbook could turn the U.S. into the world’s premier DeFi hub — if the proposals match the rhetoric.
With love,
Cami, founder of The Defiant
📈 Markets in the last 24 hrs:
| TICKER | VALUE | 24H | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Bitcoin | $109,537 | 0.70 % |
 | Ethereum | $2,864.15 | 4.59 % |
 | XRP | $2.32 | 2.06 % |
 | BNB | $668.84 | 0.75 % |
 | Solana | $167.05 | 6.18 % |
 MessariPortals | MINDSHARE Rank | MINDSHARE % Change (7d) |
|---|---|---|
 Solana SOL | 6  | 41.55% |
 Avalanche AVAX | 20 | 28.95% |
 TRON TRX | 8  | -19.81% |
| Powered by Messari Portals | ||
This is the news that mattered in the past 24 hrs:
- Cryptocurrency exchange Bullish, which is backed by billionaire investor Peter Thiel and owns crypto media outlet CoinDesk, has confidentially filed paperwork with the U.S. SEC for an IPO, FT reports.
- PYUSD, the stablecoin developed by PayPal, saw its circulating supply revisit its all-time high of $1 billion for the second time; The USD stablecoin last had a market cap above the $1 billion mark in August of last year.
- Tokenized RWA-focused DeFi platform Ondo Finance just launched tokenized short-term U.S. treasuries on XRP Ledger; Ondo’s TVL currently stands at just over $1.3 billion.
🎬WATCH
In the latest episode of The Defiant Podcast, we spoke with Tomasz Stanczak, co-executive director of the Ethereum Foundation. We discuss the evolution of Ethereum, the Foundation’s recent restructuring, and the focus on scaling Ethereum through L1 and L2 dynamics.
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