The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is set to remove any doubt that they plan to police decentralized finance. 

The commission is expected to declare on Friday that rules governing trading exchanges in the U.S. also apply to decentralized finance. The procedural move isn’t a change to rules, but rather an effort to make explicit whether existing exchange rules apply to decentralized finance.The proposed clarification and amendments to the definition of an exchange are subject to a vote by the Democratic majority commission that leads the agency, making them likely to pass. 

The action would formalize the SEC’s assertion of jurisdiction over activities labeled ‘decentralized’ that the agency sees as still falling under traditional definitions of securities trading. It may also signal increased scrutiny by the regulatory agency into that area of digital assets. So far the SEC has focused more on centralized crypto firms.

(by Colin Wilhelm)