a16z and DeFi Education Fund ask SEC for DEX exchange safe harbor
By Crypto Wire
September 23, 2026
a16z crypto and the DeFi Education Fund published a September 22 proposal asking the SEC to adopt a safe harbor from Exchange Act exchange-registration requirements for qualifying DEXs and DEX Apps, including when those systems enable peer-to-peer trades in tokenized securities. Authors David Sverdlov, Miles Jennings, Scott Walker, and Aiden Slavin frame the ask as the next Project Crypto step after last week’s Innovation Exemption for certain Tokenized Securities Venues (TSVs)—an intermediated pathway that Commissioner Hester Peirce said “is not about decentralized finance.”
The Plain English Policy lead is the line the proposal draws. For DEXs and DEX Apps that qualify, a16z wants a rebuttable presumption they are not engaged in exchange activity under the Exchange Act—because automated, non-custodial software does not create the intermediary conflicts exchange rules target. In parallel, a16z filed a complementary Crypto Transaction Platforms (CTP) submission recommending an ATS-style registration path for venues that do act as traditional intermediaries, so those platforms could trade crypto-asset securities plus security/non-security pairs under a tailored regime rather than forcing every interface into the same box.
To qualify as a DEX under the safe harbor draft, the protocol would need four objective tests: non-custodial (never control user funds; user-initiated signing); automated (no human intermediation and no person or group under common control with unilateral authority to alter rules); permissionless (no access gatekeeping); and credibly neutral (no private permissions or hard-coded privileges that discriminate among users). The submission focuses on AMM DEXs but says it is not architecture-specific.
DEX Apps—the wallet-embedded or website interfaces that help users talk to those protocols—would need their own four tests: non-custodial; pricing and market data from pre-disclosed, objective, independently verifiable sources (onchain or independent third parties); no discretion over trade coordination, pricing, matching, or execution that advantages particular users; and a limited developer role confined to interface maintenance, security updates, and objective non-discretionary filters (spam/fraud filters allowed; subjective merit picks not). a16z argues forcing exchange registration on software that never assumed intermediary duties would chill builders and push them into gatekeeping roles users did not ask for.
Why NFT and crypto collectors still open a policy wire: tokenized-stock rails and NFT marketplace front-ends sit next to the same “is this an exchange?” uncertainty. The Innovation Exemption opened a temporary, conditional lane for certain permissioned TSVs after CLARITY stalled; a16z’s safe harbor would try to extend clarity to permissionless DEX software that can already route stablecoin payments, network tokens, and—if the SEC agrees—peer-to-peer tokenized securities. Attribute cleanly: this is a policy recommendation, not an SEC-adopted exemption. The Crypto Times’ Sep. 22 wrap matches that reading—proposal days after the Sept. 17 TSV relief, not a final rule.
What to cite: a16z crypto post dated 09.22.26; four DEX criteria and four DEX App criteria verbatim from the proposal; Peirce’s “not about DeFi” Innovation Exemption line as quoted by a16z; dual track with CTP/ATS-style registration; backdrop of April broker-interface clarity, June Rule 611 rescission proposal, and last week’s TSV Innovation Exemption. What not to invent: that the SEC has adopted the harbor, that every Uniswap-style AMM automatically qualifies, or that NFT floors moved on the blog post.
The CTP companion filing matters for desks that trade both crypto and tokenized equities. a16z says no regulated market currently exists for trading tokenized securities against other tokenized securities or commodities in the way the industry needs, while centralized crypto venues remain constrained on those pairs. Modeling CTP oversight on ATS rules—with Form ATS-N–style public disclosure for NMS-stock crypto securities only above a volume threshold, and confidential conflict/operations/fair-access disclosures below it—is the proposed bridge. Blockchain-based records would be permitted under the draft’s recordkeeping language. Again: proposal text, not Commission rule text.
Orange County desks should watch the Innovation Exemption comment process (a16z says it will participate), whether Commission staff schedule meetings on the DEX criteria, and whether CTP registration language gets traction beside TSV relief. Until the SEC acts, treat the safe harbor as an industry draft that tries to turn Peirce’s DeFi distinction into operational tests—an unused Plain English Policy wire for today’s cycle after a week when agency relief moved faster than stalled Senate market-structure legislation.
Bottom line: On September 22, a16z and the DeFi Education Fund asked the SEC for a DEX/DEX App exchange-registration safe harbor—including peer-to-peer tokenized securities—to complement the new TSV Innovation Exemption with clarity for permissionless software.
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