Page 30 - 期货和衍生品行业监管动态（2023年9月刊）

期货和衍生品行业监管动态

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission today continued its enforcement

focus in the digital asset decentralized finance (DeFi) space, by issuing orders

simultaneously filing and settling charges against Opyn, Inc., a Delaware-registered

company based in California; ZeroEx, Inc., a Delaware company based in California;

and Deridex, Inc., a Delaware company based in North Carolina.

Deridex and Opyn are charged with failing to register as a swap execution facility

(SEF) or designated contract market (DCM), failing to register as a futures commission

merchant (FCM), and failing to adopt a customer identification program as part of a

Bank Secrecy Act compliance program, as required of FCMs. ZeroEx, Opyn and

Deridex are also charged with illegally offering leveraged and margined retail

commodity transactions in digital assets.

Each respondent engaged in these activities in connection with blockchain-based

software protocols and smart contracts, commonly referred to as DeFi, that functioned

similarly to trading platforms, and which purported to offer users the ability to engage
in transactions in a decentralized environment. The orders require that Opyn, ZeroEx,

and Deridex pay civil monetary penalties of $250,000, $200,000, and $100,000,

respectively, and cease and desist from violating the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA)

and CFTC regulations, as charged.

“ Somewhere along the way, DeFi operators got the idea that unlawful

transactions become lawful when facilitated by smart contracts,” said Director of

Enforcement Ian McGinley. “They do not. The DeFi space may be novel, complex, and

evolving, but the Division of Enforcement will continue to evolve with it and

aggressively pursue those who operate unregistered platforms that allow U.S. persons

to trade digital asset derivatives.”

Case Background

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