The SEC's first formal DeFi safe harbor proposal gives protocols a three-year window to register. Coinbase and Uniswap Labs plan to comment.
Alpha Score of 35 reflects weak overall profile with weak momentum, weak value, poor quality, moderate sentiment.
The SEC released a draft framework Thursday that would let decentralized finance projects register under a tailored set of rules, the first time the agency has formally proposed a path for DeFi protocols to operate within U.S. securities law.
The draft, published for a 60-day comment period, creates a conditional exemption for protocols that meet three tests: no single party controls the network, no issuer collects fees from secondary trading, and the project publishes audited code and a transparent governance mechanism. Projects that qualify would get a three-year safe harbor from SEC enforcement while they work toward full registration.
"This is the first time the SEC has acknowledged that DeFi is not just a regulatory problem but something that can be structured into the existing framework," said Jake Chervinsky, chief policy officer at the Blockchain Association. "The three-year window is the key – it gives projects time to decentralize without the threat of an enforcement action hanging over every code push."
The proposal carves out stablecoin issuers and protocols that rely on a single administrator. Those projects would still fall under traditional securities rules. The exemption also requires quarterly disclosures of treasury holdings and smart-contract upgrade rights, a provision that drew immediate pushback from some DeFi developers who said the reporting burden would be impractical for fully anonymous teams.
The SEC will accept public comments through Aug. 15. The agency's five commissioners would then vote on a final version, a process that typically takes four to six months.
Coinbase and Uniswap Labs, both of which face SEC enforcement actions over their DeFi offerings, said in separate statements that they would submit detailed comments. Uniswap Labs called the draft "a constructive starting point" while noting that the quarterly disclosure requirement "would need significant revision to work for permissionless protocols."
A separate SEC staff paper released alongside the framework proposes a pilot program for tokenized securities, including equity and debt, on public blockchains. That program would cap total issuance at $50 billion across all participants and require a registered transfer agent for each token.
Drafted by a large language model from the source reporting linked above, then screened by automated publishing checks. It is not read by a journalist before publication. Some articles cite our Alpha Score. Verify prices and figures against the original source. Educational coverage, not personalized advice.