The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is working on policy to exempt decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms from regulatory barriers, said Chairman Paul Atkins.

Software developers building DeFi tools have no business being blamed for how they’re used, Atkins and other SEC Republicans contended at the final of five crypto roundtables that have been held at the agency since the leadership turnover under President Donald Trump.

The chairman told a roundtable of DeFi experts on Monday that he’s directed the SEC staff to look into changes to agency rules «to provide needed accommodation for issuers and intermediaries to seek to administer on-chain financial systems.» Atkins called that potential exemptive relief «an innovation exemption» that would let entities under SEC jurisdiction bring on-chain products and services to market «expeditiously.»

«Many entrepreneurs are developing software applications that are designed to function without administration by any operator,» Atkins said in remarks at the event. While he noted the technology enabling private peer-to-peer transactions can «sound like science fiction,» he said «blockchain technology makes possible an entirely new class of software that can perform these functions without an intermediary.»

«We should not automatically fear the future,» Atkins said.

DeFi is a subsection of the broader cryptocurrency industry that seeks to recreate financial tools and products with code that replaces the role of traditional intermediaries such as banks and brokerages.

The Republican members of the commission — currently outnumbering the Democrat 3-1 — have been eager to move forward with crypto-friendly policy. While DeFi is often given short shrift in policy discussions that focus more on regulation of the higher-volume industry of crypto exchanges, brokers and custodial services. Though DeFi developers have faced years of distrust from U.S. government agencies, Republicans now in power are seeking to lighten those pressures.

«The SEC must not infringe on First Amendment rights by regulating someone who merely published code on the basis that others use that code to carry out activity that the SEC has traditionally regulated,» said Commissioner Hester Peirce, who has led the SEC Crypto Task Force established this year. However, she also noted that «centralized entities can’t avoid regulation simply by rolling out the decentralized label.»

Erik Voorhees, the founder of decentralized exchange ShapeShift, joked that when he got his first SEC subpoena 12 years ago, he didn’t think he’d be invited to speak at the agency years later.

«I appreciate the change of tone and the change of stance for the commission,» he said. «I think that’s absolutely a positive for America.»

Read More: U.S. SEC’s Crypto Trading Roundtable Delves Into Easing Path for Platforms

Plasma, a crypto startup developing a blockchain optimized for stablecoins, attracted $500 million in deposits for its token sale on Monday — 10 times more than originally planned.

The fundraising cap was filled in five minutes as investors scrambled to earn an allocation for the token distribution, according to blockchain data from Arkham Intelligence. The ceiling was lifted from $250 million, which had already been increased from a $50 million original target announced just two weeks ago.

Over 1,100 wallets participated in the sale of Plasma’s XPL token, with a median allocation of roughly $35,000, the company said in an X post. The offering was conducted on Sonar, a public token sale platform built by Echo, a crypto-focused private fundraising startup led by prominent investor Cobie.

The outsized demand underscores surging investor interest in stablecoins — cryptocurrencies pegged to traditional currencies like the U.S. dollar — and the infrastructure that supports them. Stablecoins have become a dominant force in crypto, with total supply surpassing $250 billion, and are increasingly used for everyday finances like payments, remittances and savings.

While Bitcoin BTC remains the oldest and most secure blockchain, most stablecoin activity today occurs on newer networks such as Ethereum, Tron, and Solana. Plasma aims to bring native stablecoin utility to Bitcoin by building a sidechain fully compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), the software standard that underpins much of decentralized finance.

The team says the Plasma chain will address key challenges faced by stablecoins on existing blockchains — including high fees and scalability limits — by leveraging Bitcoin’s security and enabling zero-fee transactions for Tether’s USDT USDT.

Plasma’s fundraising follows a string of market signals pointing to rising appetite for stablecoin exposure. Just last week, Circle (CRCL), issuer of the $60 billion USDC stablecoin, completed a blockbuster public market debut, with shares surging over $110 from a $31 IPO price.

«Circle up another 20% at the open and Plasma’s $500M public token sale sold out in the first block. The people want exposure to stablecoins,» crypto analyst Will Clemente posted.

The X account of the President of Paraguay, Santiago Peña, was hacked on Monday.

The account posted that Paraguay was making bitcoin BTC legal tender, constituting a bitcoin reserve and issuing bitcoin bonds. It also invited investors to donate to a bitcoin wallet.

«Investors: your investment today will determine the scale of this rollout. Secure your stake in Bitcoin,» the message said in English. Peña’s previous posts were all written in Spanish.

The official page of the Presidency of Paraguay posted on X that the bitcoin-related information was false and that a non-authorized person may have accessed the account.

Paraguay has become home to large bitcoin mining operations, especially belonging to HIVE (HIVE). Unlike El Salvador, however, it has yet to establish a proper crypto regulatory framework.