a16z and DeFi Education Fund Send Letter to SEC, Proposing DEX Exemption from Exchange Registration

Odaily reports: a16z and the DeFi Education Fund jointly submitted a proposal to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Commissioner Hester Peirce, recommending the establishment of a safe harbor rule that creates a "rebuttable presumption" that decentralized exchange (DEX) protocols and their front-end interfaces do not constitute "exchanges" as defined under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. On the same day, a16z submitted a separate letter calling on the SEC to establish a registration regime for centralized crypto trading platforms, modeled after the 1998 Alternative Trading System (ATS) rules. Both letters were dated September 14, and three days later, the SEC issued an "innovation exemption" for tokenized equity trading venues.