The recent guidance issued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in April regarding decentralized finance (DeFi) interfaces has sparked significant debate across the sector. More than 35 organizations, including prominent names such as the DeFi Education Fund, a16z crypto, Aptos Labs, Uniswap, Chainlink, Paradigm, Solana Policy Institute, and Phantom, have formally petitioned the SEC. Their unified request: transform the temporary guidance into a lasting, public regulation.
What did the SEC’s April guidance outline?
On April 13, the SEC’s Division of Markets and Trading published a staff bulletin clarifying that certain operators of crypto interfaces are exempt from registering as broker-dealers. This exemption specifically applies to front-end providers that enable users to interact with DeFi protocols while retaining control of their own assets.
According to the framework set forth, these user interface providers can collect transaction fees without holding a broker-dealer license. However, the scope of these arrangements is narrow, and the exemption is temporary in nature rather than permanent.
Why is the DeFi ecosystem seeking permanent rules?
The current guidance is intended to remain in effect for up to five years from its issuance, after which it must either become an official rule or be withdrawn. The DeFi Education Fund and many industry representatives fear that future changes in SEC leadership could quickly overturn temporary guidance. As a result, stakeholders are pushing for formal, public regulation that offers legal certainty and cannot be easily rescinded due to political or administrative shifts.
Concerns have been raised that prolonged regulatory uncertainty could significantly slow the advancement of blockchain technology and restrict market access for investors.
New privacy proposal emerges for Ethereum
In parallel to the SEC’s moves, Ethereum developer Tom Lehman shared a proposal named EIP-8182 on X, which has since become a focal point of discussion. The proposal suggests enabling native private transfers within Ethereum’s protocol itself.
The EIP-8182 proposal would integrate a “shared shielded pool” directly into the Ethereum blockchain. This would let users conduct private transactions at the protocol level, without relying on third-party tools, using a ZK-proof validation system embedded in the pool.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin previously advocated for integrating privacy features directly into wallets—similar to Railgun—by April 2025, aiming to give users the option of more secure and private transactions.
Notably, the proposed pool would not include any admin key, governance token, or on-chain upgrade mechanism. The only way to update the system would be through Ethereum’s hard fork process.
If implemented, protocol-level privacy transactions could complicate the broker-dealer boundaries the SEC’s latest guidance attempts to define. In particular, front-end wallets with default private sending features could make regulatory distinctions even more difficult to establish.
