The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has inked a new deal with a blockchain analytics firm to help monitor and regulate the decentralized finance (DeFi) industry.
The San Jose-based analytics firm AnChain.AI announced the partnership on Twitter on Friday.
AnChain.AI CEO and co-founder Victor Fang tells Forbes that his firm is providing the SEC with the technology to analyze and trace smart contracts.
“The SEC is very keen on understanding what is happening in the world of smart contract-based digital assets.”
Forbes also reports that the initial value of the contract is $125,000, with five separate one-year $125,000 option years.
The move comes after SEC Chairman Gary Gensler issued warning on Fox Business earlier this month about the potential risks associated with the DeFi sector.
“We focus on investor protection. We’re neutral about technology, Bitcoin, and the other crypto tokens … and their innovative technologies. But at the same time, we’re not neutral about investor protection. So if somebody is in a project that’s offering a security, they should come in, they should register.
These so-called decentralized finance platforms actually have a lot of centralization. There is a group of entrepreneurs that are running these platforms and they should come in and work with us and get registered.”
This month, the SEC pressed charges against two Florida men and their Cayman Islands company for unregistered sales of more than $30 million in securities using smart contracts and DeFi technology. The case represents the SEC’s first involving DeFi securities.
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