CFTC Starts Legal Actions Against 3 DeFi Projects
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has filed lawsuits against three decentralized finance (DeFi) companies – Opyn, ZeroEx and Deridex – for illegally trading derivatives and operating without a license.
Specifically, the firms are charged with using blockchain-based protocols and smart contracts to function as trading platforms, offering retail commodity transactions and margin transactions involving borrowed funds in digital assets without proper authorization.
All three firms agreed to settle the claims by paying respective fines of $250,000, $200,000 and $100,000. Director of Enforcement Ian McGinley explained:
“Somewhere along the way, DeFi operators realized that illegal transactions became legal when facilitated by smart contracts.”
However, the agency’s verdict met with some disagreement from within the CFTC, due to the hiring of former ZeroEx lawyer Jason Somensatto as the regulator’s Head of Fintech Research earlier this year.
