DeFi: Multi-million airdrop – US citizens go away empty-handed thanks to the SEC
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The decentralized exchange (DEX) dYdX has announced a multi-million US dollar airdrop to its users. Why US citizens are excluded and why SEC Chief Gary Gensler wants to show its limits. The DeFi monitor.
The crypto space is on the rise and DeFi has also made up some ground this week. Driven by the start of the long-awaited EIP-1559 by many in the ETH community, several DeFi tokens recorded price increases in the double-digit percentage range.
DeFi heavyweights like Uniswap (UNI), Aave (AAVE) and SushiSwap (SUSHI) rose between 15 and 30 percent on a weekly basis. In addition, the price of the “DeFi ETF Token” DPI has grown by 16.51 percent within the last seven days.
But not only the courses were able to develop positively, the Total Value Locked (TVL) of the ETH DeFi sector also grew strongly. At the time of going to press, there are almost 74 billion US dollars in the smart contracts of the various ETH DeFi protocols.
SEC chief Gary Gensler declares war on DeFi
When it became known that Gary Gensler would be the new head of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), there was great enthusiasm. That was because the 63-year-old is considered a specialist in digital assets. In the past he has repeatedly given lectures on crypto and blockchain WITH held. But it is now clear: Gensler wants to show the sector its limits and above all target crypto exchanges and DeFi.
The former should be relatively easy for the SEC boss, as conventional crypto exchanges are not particularly difficult to regulate due to their centralized structures. Reporting obligations or KYC / AML regulations can be easily implemented there.
In contrast, it looks different in the DeFi space. Decentralized protocols cannot simply be integrated into the existing set of rules, as they cannot be assigned to a central contact point – a thorn in the side of the regulators. However, it is currently unclear how exactly the SEC intends to put DeFi in its place. One possible option would be to ban private crypto wallets.
SEC Commissioner Hester Pierce is harshly critical
SEC Commissioner Hester Pierce has long been known for her “freedom-loving opinion” and her support for DeFi and Co. Unsurprisingly, according to Gensler’s statements, she was immediately involved in one Panel discussion, hosted by DeFi Watch and The DeFiant, participated to defend DeFi space.
In her opinion Regulating the DeFi sector is not primarily about protecting investors. Rather, each user should be able to decide for himself whether he trusts the math behind the code of a decentralized application or a company. Regulators should therefore not be rash or excessive regulations.
They trade directly with each other and choose to trust the code rather than a centralized broker. I tend to look at things from a pretty freedom-loving perspective. That is, if two people decide to conduct a transaction and they do so voluntarily and with full information, then that should be fine.
DeFi education instead of bans
In addition, Pierce pointed out that the US government should rather aim to Educate people about DeFi instead of limiting them. This is the only way to ensure that people can safely interact with the new technology. She also thinks that the real sticking point will be whether DeFi is really decentralized or not.
If you want to prove that you are really different from CeFi or TradFi systems, then you have to show that you are doing something radically different, which in my opinion requires decentralization.
Nevertheless, it must be noted that Gensler is not completely negative about the crypto space either. During an SEC hearing, he said he was open to a room for To create “crypto experiments”. He could also imagine the approval of a Bitcon ETF based on futures.
dYdX launches multi-million US dollar airdrop – US citizens go away empty-handed
dYdX is one of the largest decentralized exchanges in the crypto space. It was founded in 2017 by Antonio Juliano, a former Coinbase and Uber employee. In order to further decentralize the protocol, dYdX has the on August 3rd Start of a comprehensive airdrop announced, where DYDX tokens are distributed to early supporters and the community. You can find out whether you are eligible for this and how you can earn tokens from dYdX in the blog post of dYdX Foundation.
There is one catch, however – users from the USA are completely excluded from the Airdrop. According to Anthony Sassano, a well-known developer from the ETH community, is due to the “complicated and draconian financial regulations” of the USA.
This would mean that it is not worthwhile for DeFi projects to strive to comply with the regulations. For this reason, they prefer not to work in the USA at all. If one trusts the forecasts of Polymarkt, then it can be assumed that DYDX (as soon as tradable) will have a market capitalization of billions of dollars will come. As a result, many US citizens are currently missing out on millions of dollars due to the regulations.
