Unlocking Innovation: Why A16z and DeFi Education Fund Want SEC to Rethink Crypto Rules
- Keyword Financial
- Aug 13
- 4 min read
Introduction
Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and the DeFi Education Fund (DEF) jointly urged the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to establish a “safe harbor” for certain blockchain applications, particularly DeFi and NFT apps, so their developers aren’t automatically treated as broker-dealers under the Exchange Act. In filings and a letter submitted this week, the groups argue that clear, narrowly tailored protections would let U.S. teams build core software infrastructure without fear of misapplied securities rules, while preserving the SEC’s ability to police genuinely risky conduct (CryptoNews, Cointelegraph, Law360).
Their proposal focuses on apps that function as non-custodial technical infrastructure—think decentralized exchanges, self-custodial wallets, and NFT marketplace protocols—rather than intermediaries that handle customer assets or give investment advice. To qualify, apps would need to be non-custodial, avoid investment recommendations, and only execute “optimization” suggestions with explicit user consent. In most cases, they should either interface with protocols that no longer have operational control or show a good‑faith commitment to decentralizing over time. The aim is to avoid sweeping in developers simply for shipping front-end software or running basic interfaces to smart contracts (CryptoNews, BitcoinEthereumNews summary, Decrypt summary).
The push comes amid years of SEC scrutiny and lawsuits against crypto firms over alleged unregistered broker or exchange activity, creating uncertainty for U.S. projects. The groups say a safe harbor would provide immediate clarity while broader crypto market-structure legislation advances in Congress, and would better align regulatory categories with how modern, open-source software actually works. Coverage notes the effort builds on prior a16z outreach to the SEC about NFT and token-related safe harbors and responds to ongoing enforcement risks that have touched wallet providers and DEX developers, including high-profile cases involving Consensys and Uniswap Labs (Cointelegraph, Decrypt summary, CryptoNews).
