Aave's four-year investigation concludes: SEC takes no enforcement action, DeFi developers welcome a new era

【Blockchain Rhythm】Aave founder Stani.eth announced a major development on December 17: after a four-year-long wait, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has officially ended its investigation into the Aave protocol. This signifies that the Aave team’s years of effort in addressing regulatory requirements and protecting the protocol ecosystem have paid off.

What does this mean for the entire DeFi industry? In recent years, the DeFi ecosystem has been under disproportionate regulatory scrutiny—from token classification disputes to registration issues for lending/governance functions, various uncertainties have weighed heavily on developers. Now, there is an opportunity to break free from these uncertainties and truly enter an era where developers can focus on building the next generation of financial infrastructure.

The SEC typically remains low-profile when closing cases without enforcement actions and does not disclose specific investigation focuses. Regarding the details of this investigation—whether it focused on the security classification of tokens or the regulatory positioning of the protocol’s lending/governance functions—the industry currently mainly speculates based on related knowledge. Nonetheless, this development is a positive signal for Aave and the entire DeFi ecosystem.