The SEC’s forthcoming DeFi roundtable marks a strategic shift aimed at fostering regulatory collaboration, with significant potential to influence national crypto policy and spur decentralized innovation across the country.
On May 28, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced its plans to host a roundtable titled “DeFi and the American Spirit” on June 9. The event will bring together participants from the decentralized finance (DeFi) industry, academia, and policy circles. Scheduled from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the SEC’s Washington D.C. headquarters, the session will also be accessible to the public through a livestream on the SEC’s official website. The agency’s Crypto Task Force is organizing the roundtable. Doors open at noon, and only in-person attendees must register in advance.
SEC Eyes DeFi Policy Overhaul in New Roundtable, Invites Industry Stakeholders
The statement was made by Commissioner Hester M. Peirce, who serves as the chair of the Crypto Task Force.
DeFi exemplifies the promise of crypto, as it allows people to interact without intermediaries. I look forward to learning from the panelists about how we can create a regulatory environment in which DeFi can thrive.
Several SEC officials — including Chief of Staff Richard B. Gabbert, Chairman Paul S. Atkins, Commissioner Caroline A. Crenshaw, and Commissioner Mark T. Uyeda — will deliver opening remarks. After the introductions, Troy Paredes of Paredes Strategies LLC will moderate a panel discussion featuring representatives from Espresso Systems, Columbia Business School, Jito Labs, Coin Center, and Venice AI.
The panel will feature participants such as Jill Gunter, Michael Jordan, Omid Malekan, Michael Mosier, Rebecca Rettig, Gabe Shapiro, Peter Van Valkenburgh, Erik Voorhees, and Kevin Werbach.Attendees can pose questions directly during the town hall segment, either live or by email. Commissioner Peirce will deliver the closing remarks. While some critics still express skepticism about the SEC’s crypto regulation approach, many in the blockchain community see the roundtable as a vital opportunity to influence policy and foster open dialogue about innovation in decentralized finance.
The SEC launched a series of crypto regulation roundtables on March 21, 2025, beginning with an event titled “How We Got Here and How We Get Out – Defining Security Status. This initiative marked the start of the agency’s “Spring Sprint Toward Crypto Clarity,” a five-part series coordinated by the Crypto Task Force. The following sessions covered a range of critical issues: crypto trading regulations on April 11, custody challenges on April 25, and tokenization on May 12. These roundtables reflect a strategic transition from the SEC’s historically enforcement-heavy stance to one of active collaboration with the crypto sector, aiming to establish more transparent and coherent regulatory guidelines.
