a16z Crypto General Counsel Miles Jennings and the DeFi Education Fund have asked the SEC (U.S. securities regulator) for broader concessions in its proposed Innovation Exemption framework. Their first request would clarify when decentralized exchanges (DEXes), applications providing access to them, and their developers fall outside Exchange Act registration requirements. The requested protection would apply to fully non-custodial platforms, including those handling tokenized securities. The groups also proposed a separate approval pathway for crypto asset trading platforms (CTPs) that operate as traditional intermediaries and control user funds. The push follows the SEC’s 2024 enforcement action plan against Uniswap and contrasts with CFTC (U.S. derivatives regulator) relief for passive software such as Phantom, which does not cover DEXes handling assets the SEC may classify as securities. SIFMA, representing traditional broker-dealers including Citadel Securities, has criticized the Innovation Exemption proposal and may support the intermediary pathway while opposing relief for DEXes and related applications.