The Blockchain Association has responded to a letter from Citadel addressed to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The letter reportedly calls for DeFi protocol developers, smart contract authors, and self-custody wallet providers to be regulated as intermediaries under securities laws.
Summer Mersinger, CEO of the Blockchain Association, issued a statement regarding Citadel's position. “A letter from Citadel to the SEC advances a sweeping claim that DeFi protocol developers, smart contract authors, and even self-custody wallet providers should be treated as intermediaries subject to registration under securities laws. That interpretation has no grounding in the Exchange Act, decades of Commission practice, judicial precedent, or the commonsense distinction between those who build software and those who custody assets."
Mersinger further emphasized the organization's stance on software development and free speech: "Code is speech. Blockchain Association has always fought – and will always fight – on behalf of DeFi and open-source developers who write First Amendment-protected code. Regulating software developers as if they were financial intermediaries would undermine U.S. competitiveness, drive innovation offshore, and do nothing to advance investor protection. We urge the SEC to reject this overbroad and unworkable approach and instead focus regulatory attention on actual intermediaries who stand between users and their assets.”
