New Compliance ICOs are about to explode: SEC releases regulatory dividends, encryption innovation reboots the engine.

Written by: AIGC

Compiled by: AI Editorial Department, Techub News

After years of regulatory ambiguity and legal disputes, the latest regulatory direction released by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may open a new growth cycle for the crypto market. This is particularly aimed at core mechanisms such as Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), Decentralized Finance (DeFi), and self-custody of digital assets, proposing a more flexible and inclusive regulatory framework, paving a clear path for compliance and innovation in the crypto industry.

1. The self-custody rights have been positively recognized by the SEC, benefiting American crypto users the most.

The SEC's latest statement positively affirms the core position of "self-custody" of digital assets for personal asset rights — this is a fundamental part of the free market in the United States. The SEC chairman clearly stated that every user should have the right to decide how to hold and manage their crypto assets, including staking, trading, and other on-chain activities through self-custody wallets.

This attitude will greatly encourage the development of cryptocurrency applications based on personal sovereignty and create vast opportunities for wallet developers and self-custody service providers. Users will no longer need to rely on centralized exchanges to participate in network governance, staking rewards, and DeFi interoperability, leading to a transformation in user behavior of cryptocurrency applications from "access" to "sovereign control."

2. DeFi and AMM ecosystems gain regulatory tolerance, on-chain finance enters a gray area of compliance.

For a long time, DeFi and automated market makers (AMM) could not be easily fitted into existing regulatory frameworks due to decentralization and the absence of traditional financial intermediaries. However, the SEC has recently acknowledged that the traditional federal securities laws, designed around intermediary governance, should not be forcibly applied to on-chain automated systems. This means that as long as a protocol has "decentralization" and achieves a sufficient degree of autonomy and transparency, its developers can expect to receive prior compliance exemptions or safe harbor protections.

This change means that developers no longer have to overly centralize protocol technology just to adapt to regulatory mechanisms, but can instead return to the original purpose of DeFi—defining trading rules through code. This will unleash tremendous innovative potential for core DeFi components such as AMM, market prediction, and lending protocols, and also reduce the legal uncertainties faced by American development teams.

3. The rise of a new ecosystem for ICO compliance will also benefit from airdrops and online rewards.

Perhaps the most exciting aspect is that the SEC has proposed new disclosure and safe harbor recommendations for the three major methods of financing and token distribution in the crypto market — Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), Airdrops, and Network Rewards — intending to establish "clear boundaries and actionable" exemptions and compliance guidelines.

Under this new framework, legitimate ICOs and airdrops will no longer exclude U.S. investors due to compliance costs and litigation risks, but will have the opportunity to re-engage with the world's largest capital market. For startup protocols, this means they can incentivize contributors and community members through token models, while mobilizing capital early under the premise of compliance and risk control.

Although the SEC has not yet announced a complete case regarding specific disclosure standards, the overall approach has clearly pointed towards this: future ICOs that can disclose sufficient information, transparent governance, and have registered safe harbor procedures may receive regulatory tacit approval.

The Cambrian of crypto innovation is about to be rebooted.

When the SEC begins to consider providing a regulatory "adaptation layer" from the perspective of mechanism design, rather than simply imposing traditional central management logic onto the blockchain, the innovative ecology of ICOs, DeFi, and wallets is expected to reignite. In the future, it may no longer be the case that startup teams avoid the U.S. market and choose legally friendly offshore structures, but rather under the leadership of the SEC, a truly regulatory, scalable, and decentralized spirit of the crypto economic model will be realized.

We may be witnessing a self-upgrade of regulatory policies—a regulatory dividend period that could ignite the next wave of Web 3 entrepreneurship.