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Aave, Uniswap, Sky Tokens Surge Over 20% as SEC Roundtable Spurs DeFi Optimism
Market observers heralded the SEC Chair Atkins' comments as positive development for the sector, with Binance founder CZ saying that June 9th "will be remembered as DeFi day."
Updated Jun 10, 2025, 7:11 p.m. Published Jun 10, 2025, 3:03 p.m.
What to know:
- DeFi tokens UNI, AAVE, and SKY surged over 20% following optimistic remarks from SEC Chair Paul Atkins.
- Atkins suggested exploring regulatory exemptions for DeFi firms, contrasting with the previous SEC's restrictive stance.
- Ethereum (ETH), key hub for DeFi apps, also gained 8% outperforming bitcoin and the CoinDesk 20 Index.
Decentralized finance (DeFi) tokens UNI, AAVE and SKY all rose by more than 20% on optimistic comments from SEC Chair Paul Atkins at a Monday roundtable discussion about the sector.
Atkins instructed the regulator to explore exemptions to let decentralized finance (DeFi) firms conduct operations without as many restrictions.
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"The right to have self-custody of one's private property is a foundational American value," he said.
The comments are a stark contrast to those made by the previous commission led by Gary Gensler, which was criticized for stifling innovation by imposing restrictive guidance on crypto firms.
"Can you imagine a starker contrast with the previous SEC’s approach?," said Noelle Acheson, analyst and author of Crypto Is Macro Now newsletter.
"We expected Atkins to say some nice words around the potential for innovation to unleash new financial efficiencies," she wrote. "We didn’t expect his support to be quite so emphatic."
Industry members heralded the event as a symbolic milestone the event ,
June 9th "will be remembered as DeFi day," Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, founder of Binance, the largest crypto exchange by trading volume posted on X.
"The DeFi Renaissance continues," said Arthur Cheong, founder and CEO of crypto investment firm DeFiance Capital.
DeFi-related tokens well outperformed an already upbeat crypto market with bitcoin bouncing to near record prices. Ethereum's ether , a key hub for DeFi applications, also jumped over 8%.
The broad-market crypto benchmark CoinDesk 20 Index was 4.7% up over the past 24 hours, while BTC gained 1.5% in the same period.
Read more: U.S. SEC Chair Says Working on 'Innovation Exemption' for DeFi Platforms
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- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
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Coinbase Sees Crypto Recovery Ahead as Liquidity Improves and Fed Rate Cut Odds Climb
The crypto exchange also took note of a so-called AI bubble that continues to go strong and a weaker U.S. dollar.
What to know:
- Coinbase Institutional is seeing a potential December recovery in crypto, citing improving liquidity and a shift in macroeconomic conditions that could favor risk assets like bitcoin.
- The firm's optimism is driven by rising odds of Federal Reserve rate cuts, with markets pricing in a 93% chance easing next week, and improving liquidity conditions.
- Several recent institutional developments, including Vanguard's crypto ETF policy reversal and Bank of America's greenlighting of crypto allocations, have contributed to bitcoin's rebound from recent lows.
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