Citadel causes uproar for urging SEC to regulate DeFi tokenized stocks

Citadel Securities submitted a letter to the SEC recommending that decentralized finance (DeFi) developers, coders, and self-custody wallet providers should not receive broad exemptive relief when offering trading of tokenized US equities. Citadel argued that these DeFi platforms likely qualify as an "exchange" or "broker-dealer" and should be regulated under securities laws to prevent creating dual regulatory regimes for the same security, contradicting the Exchange Act's technology-neutral approach. This stance drew immediate criticism from crypto advocates like Jake Chervinsky and Hayden Adams, who accused Citadel of protecting incumbent financial interests. Summer Mersinger of the Blockchain Association warned that regulating software developers as financial intermediaries would harm US competitiveness. Separately, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) echoed the call for consistent regulation, citing recent crypto market disruptions as proof that established investor protection frameworks are necessary.

(Source：Cointelegraph)