SEC signs contract with analytic firm to investigate DeFi market
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has signed a deal with blockchain analytics firm AnChain.AI to help observe and regulate the decentralized finance (DeFi) industry, according to a company spokesperson.
AnChain.AI, is a San Jose-based artificial intelligence and machine learning blockchain startup that focuses on tracking illicit activity across crypto exchanges, DeFi protocols, and traditional financial institutions.
The contract is valued at $125,000 per annum and will last for five years. Victor Fang, the CEO and co-founder of AnChain.AI said:
The SEC is very keen on understanding what is happening in the world of smart contract-based digital assets [...] so we are providing them with technology to analyze and trace smart contracts.
The contract comes at the heel of SEC’s interest in the rapid development of DeFi. Its first major action against the DeFi forum was in 2018 when it closed EtherDelta, a ‘DeFi’ exchange that it deemed to be operating illegally.
Gensler warned that DeFi operations are not immune from probes just because they bear the tag decentralized in an August interview with The Wall Street Journal. He continued;
There’s still a core group of folks that are not only writing the software, like the open source software, but they often have governance and fees [...] There’s some incentive structure for those promoters and sponsors in the middle of this.
