U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Commissioner Mark T. Uyeda used remarks at an SEC-CFTC roundtable on regulatory harmonization to argue that innovations such as blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI) and decentralized finance (DeFi) are increasingly crossing the statutory boundary between “securities” and “commodities”, raising the risk of overlapping jurisdiction and duplicative regulation. He urged the agencies to coordinate around the functional risks of novel products and consider existing mitigants before asserting new jurisdictional claims. Uyeda cited the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) 2012 amendments to Commodity Exchange Act Rule 4.5 as a cautionary example, describing how the change effectively removed a long-standing exclusion for SEC-registered investment companies that use a limited amount of commodity interests. He said mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) exceeding a very low derivatives threshold were required to register with the CFTC as commodity pool operators, leading to dual registration, duplicative reporting systems and conflicting compliance requirements, with industry feedback at the time anticipating millions of dollars in incremental costs borne by investors and no evidence of incremental benefits in investor protection or market integrity. As alternatives to layering duplicative rules, he pointed to information-sharing agreements, joint examinations and harmonized reporting forms.
U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission 2025-09-29
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Commissioner Uyeda calls for SEC-CFTC harmonization to avoid duplicative oversight of blockchain, AI and DeFi
SEC Commissioner Mark T. Uyeda noted at an SEC-CFTC roundtable that innovations like blockchain, AI, and decentralized finance blur lines between securities and commodities, risking overlapping jurisdiction and duplicative regulation. He urged coordination on functional risks and existing mitigants before new jurisdictional claims. Uyeda cited the CFTC's 2012 amendments as a cautionary tale, noting dual registration and increased costs without clear benefits.