SEC has signed an agreement with AnChain to investigate DeFi
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Blockchain analyst firm AnChain.AI has signed an agreement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to help monitor and regulate the tumultuous decentralized finances (DeFi) industry, according to a company spokesman. The initial value of the contract is $ 125,000, with five separate one-year option years of $ 125,000 each for a total value of $ 625,000.
AnChain.AI
According to CEO and co-founder Victor Fang:
“The Securities and Exchange Commission wants to understand very well what is happening in the world of digital assets based on smart contracts. That’s why we provide them with technology for analyzing and tracking smart contracts. “
AnChain.AI is a San Jose-based startup that specializes in artificial intelligence and machine learning in the field of blockchain and focuses on monitoring illegal activities on crypto exchanges, DeFi protocols and traditional financial institutions. In unveiling the agreement with the SEC, which took effect in May 2021, the company also announced today that it has received a $ 10 million Series A funding round led by Susquehanna’s affiliate, SIG Asia Investments LLP, with an undisclosed award.
SEC’s interest in DeFi
The agreement follows another SEC interest in the DeFi sector, which is maturing and growing rapidly. The industry currently manages more than $ 82 billion, and the largest decentralized exchange, Uniswap, has processed more than $ 1.8 billion in transactions in the past 24 hours, many of which included tokens that the SEC could label as securities. In addition, these platforms are becoming increasingly complex. Fang noted that the Uniswap platform is, in fact, a combination of 30,000 separate smart contracts that perform the token exchange itself.
The first major SEC action against DeFi came in 2018, when it closed EtherDelta, an exchange it considered illegal.
DeFi is not immune
In an August interview with The Wall Street Journal, SEC President Gary Gensler warned that DeFi operations are not immune to surveillance, even though they use the word decentralized, and that there are still a core of people who not only write software such as open source software but often have under inches administration and fees. In the middle, there is a certain motivational structure for these promoters and sponsors.
SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce reiterated this view in an March interview with Forbes magazine, but (perhaps in recognition of the potential in DeFi) asked these projects to apply and be active against the regulator.
Conclusion
SEC is really interested in cryptocurrency space to regulate DeFi. It looks a little too screwed.
