In a formal submission to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Citadel Securities has called for the application of securities regulations to decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms that offer tokenized versions of U.S. equities. The market-making giant contends that these digital assets, which track the price of traditional stocks, constitute securities and should not be granted any form of exemptive relief from existing regulatory frameworks.
The firm’s argument centers on investor protection and market integrity, emphasizing that all venues facilitating trading in these instruments must adhere to the same compliance standards as traditional securities markets. This stance places Citadel Securities at the forefront of a growing debate on how to classify and oversee the convergence of digital assets with conventional financial products. The move has sparked significant discussion within the crypto industry, with many participants viewing it as a challenge to the operational model of permissionless DeFi protocols that issue such synthetic assets.
