The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) launched a new round of crackdowns on Friday (September 8), ordering decentralized finance (DeFi) companies Opyn, ZeroEx and Deridex to cease operations and impose fines of $250,000, $200,000 and $100,000 respectively. It is reported that they are suspected of illegally providing leveraged crypto assets and margin retail commodity trading. Regulators call on crypto companies to take more proactive actions within the law.
The CFTC said Deridex and Opyn were charged for failing to register as swap execution agencies or designated contract markets, and for failing to register as futures commission merchants. The regulator said the two agreements also failed to comply with customer terms set out in the Bank Secrecy Act.
According to CoinTelegraph, the U.S. CFTC’s order requires Opyn, ZeroEx, and Deridex to pay fines of $250,000, $200,000, and $100,000, respectively, and to stop violating the Commodity Exchange Act and regulations established by regulators. Two of the companies have agreed to settle the charges.
Ian McGinley, director of enforcement at the U.S. CFTC, stressed that DeFi platforms need to be more proactive in taking actions within the law. He said: “Along the way, DeFi platform operators believed that illegal transactions would become legal under the impetus of smart contracts, but this is not the case.”
“The DeFi space may be new, complex, and evolving, but law enforcement will continue to evolve with it and aggressively pursue those who operate unregistered platforms that allow Americans to trade digital asset derivatives,” he continued.
Obviously, there are voices in the market that are dissatisfied with the US CFTC order. Bankless co-host Ryan Sean Adams called the US CFTC's enforcement action another attack on DeFi.
Opyn is a DeFi investment strategy platform with a total locked value (TVL) of $23 million currently locked on its protocol, while ZeroEx is an Ethereum-based decentralized exchange.
Separately, Deridex is a derivatives platform powered by Algorand. According to DefiLlama, the project suddenly shut down in February, causing its total locked value to drop from about $150,000 to $133 on September 8.
As of now, the United States has not yet issued a unified cryptocurrency framework. The market expects the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the CFTC to reach a final consensus and issue a final regulatory model as soon as possible to protect the rights and interests of investors.
U.S. CFTC Commissioner Caroline Pham has called for a limited pilot program to be implemented as soon as possible to address cryptocurrency regulation, according to a proposal she made. Pham said on Thursday that she plans to propose a pilot program for digital asset markets following a public roundtable discussion, claiming that the United States may soon need to "catch up" with cryptocurrency-friendly jurisdictions.
“The pilot program can create a framework for emerging technologies and market structures based on our existing laws and regulations,” Pham said. “I hope that the pilot, which tests, collects data, and develops pragmatic approaches to tokenization, will ensure that we continue to fulfill our mission to foster open, transparent, competitive, and financially sound markets.”
Pham called for a roundtable of stakeholders and expected the CFTC to propose and adopt rules on cryptocurrency risks based on a previous pilot program. At the end of the program, the CFTC will decide whether to make the changes permanent.
