The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Trading and Markets issued new staff guidance today, April 13, that outlines conditions under which certain crypto-related user interfaces may operate without registering as broker-dealers under federal securities law.

The guidance applies specifically to what the staff calls “covered user interfaces,” which it defines as self-custody software products for interacting with crypto, which could include DeFi protocol front-ends, wallet extensions, and mobile apps.

The staff guidance defines these UIs as “an interface provided by a website, browser extension, or other software application (e.g., mobile application) that may be embedded in a wallet or separately available for download, designed to assist users engaging in user-initiated crypto asset securities transactions on blockchain protocols (or blockchain-based smart contracts) utilizing the user’s self-custodial wallet.”

Under the SEC staff statement, an interface can avoid broker-dealer registration only if it meets all of the following conditions:

• It does not take custody of user funds;
• It provides no investment advice or trade recommendations;
• It does not route or execute orders on users’ behalf;
• Generally, it charges a fixed percentage as a transaction fee;
• It exercises no discretion over transactions or market activity.

The statement also prohibits operators from labeling trading routes as “best” or “preferred” and bars any commentary that could be interpreted as investment advice.

The SEC stressed that the statement is not a formal rule or binding regulation. Rather, it reflects staff’s current interpretation of existing Exchange Act law. The guidance is set to remain in effect for five years unless superseded by formal commission-level rulemaking, per today’s statement.

The DeFi Regulation Question

The release arrives amid a long-running debate over how U.S. law should treat DeFi developers and the software infrastructure they build. As The Defiant has reported, even after a landmark joint SEC-CFTC interpretive release earlier this year, key questions about fully permissionless DeFi remain unanswered, with experts noting that regulators have largely built frameworks around centralized actors, while deferring the hardest DeFi questions to future rulemaking.

That uncertainty has fueled industry anxiety over the fate of protocol developers, front-end operators, and wallet providers under existing securities law.

Lawyers and industry observers have warned that early draft of the CLARITY Act, the pending crypto market structure bill that has not yet passed into law, leaves many issues unresolved, empowering agencies to fill in the details through future rulemaking.

Meanwhile, both the CFTC and SEC have signaled they are working to modernize rules so there is a clearer place for on-chain software systems and front-ends within the regulatory framework.

This article was written with the assistance of AI workflows. All our stories are curated, edited and fact-checked by a human.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued a staff statement clarifying how the agency plans to interpret software interfaces facilitating crypto transactions in its broker-dealer regulations.

In a Monday statement, the SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets staff said that under certain circumstances, interfaces that “assist users engaging in user-initiated crypto asset securities transactions on blockchain protocols […] utilizing the user’s self-custodial wallet” may not necessarily be required to register as a broker-dealer with the agency.

The SEC statement specified that self-custodial wallets with such user interfaces may be exempt from registration requirements, provided they do not “solicit investors to engage in any specific crypto asset securities transactions,” provide commentary on “any potential execution [routes] displayed to a user,” and other circumstances.

Although the staff statement does not carry the same weight as a proposed SEC rule subject to public comment and review, it was intended to “provide greater clarity on the application of the federal securities laws to activities involving crypto asset securities.”

It follows several others that the SEC has issued following the inauguration of US President Donald Trump in January 2025, leading to new leadership at the agency in what many have seen as friendlier to the crypto industry.

Related: Ex-SEC, Coinbase staffer becomes Securitize president

“While the staff expressing its view is helpful, I favor a more permanent regulatory approach that addresses the broker definition in light of current market circumstances,” said SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, adding:

“Crypto is forcing the Commission to confront its inner demons that have driven it toward ever more expansive readings of the securities laws.”

SEC leadership is still entirely Republican and understaffed

Although Trump announced several new nominations for various federal positions on Monday after a month of silence on the matter, no additional picks for the SEC or Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) were among the president’s names. Both financial regulators responsible for overseeing crypto regulation in the country face a dearth of leadership amid resignations and lack of nominations from the White House.

At the SEC, only three Republican commissioners out of five remain, while only CFTC Chair Michael Selig, also a Republican, serves at the commodities regulator following the departure of Caroline Pham in December.

Some lawmakers have proposed attaching a provision to a market structure bill under consideration in the Senate to require a minimum level of staffing at the SEC and CFTC before the legislation can take effect.

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