Uniswap (UNI) founder Hayden Adams drew attention to the assessment made by SEC member Hester Peirce following the “Innovation Exemption” decision announced by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on September 17. According to Adams, the most important development of the day for automated market makers (AMMs) was not the SEC’s official decision, but rather Peirce’s approach to decentralized systems.
The SEC has granted a temporary and conditional exemption to platforms called “Tokenized Securities Platforms,” which allow certain tokenized US stocks to be traded on-chain. The agency requires these platforms to meet specific transparency, record-keeping, trading volume, and technological security requirements. SEC Chairman Paul Atkins also stated that the regulation will enable tokenized stocks to be traded on-chain in permissioned environments.
Adams, however, highlighted the view used in Peirce’s assessment that “truly decentralized systems operated by autonomous software” do not expose the underlying intermediary risks of securities regulation. Adams argued that this approach could be interpreted as meaning that normal, permissionless Uniswap use does not require an additional exemption.
According to the Uniswap founder, the exemption announced by the SEC is particularly significant for licensed pools on Uniswap v4. Adams stated that this structure could create a pathway for compliant trading in the US for assets and users subject to regulatory requirements.
Adams stated that the development could create significant opportunities for the adoption of AMM technologies in traditional financial markets, and announced that the Uniswap team would also submit a letter of opinion to the SEC containing suggestions for regulatory improvements.
