PANews reported on June 10 that according to The Block, Paul Atkins, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), hinted at a roundtable on "DeFi and the American Spirit" that he would be more open to self-custody, calling the "right to self-custody" a "fundamental value of the United States." Atkins said: "The right to self-custody of private property should not disappear just because you log on to the Internet. I support giving market participants more flexibility to autonomously custody crypto assets."

This is the latest sign of a shift in the SEC's regulatory stance since the departure of former Chairman Gary Gensler. Atkins criticized his predecessor's classification of developers as broker-dealers as a hindrance to innovation, and said he has asked SEC staff to explore whether providing further guidance or making rules would help registrants be able to trade with these software systems in compliance with applicable laws.