In a landmark international joint statement, financial regulatory agencies have released an updated regulatory guidance paper establishing clear distinctions between custodial intermediaries and decentralized software protocols. The framework explicitly affirms that self-executing, non-custodial smart contracts lacking centralized admin controls do not constitute financial broker-dealers.
The guidance provides much-needed legal clarity for open-source software developers, emphasizing that writing and deploying decentralized smart contracts is protected speech, while custodial entities holding customer funds remain subject to traditional anti-money laundering and solvency compliance rules.
Industry organizations and legal scholars have praised the updated stance as a crucial milestone that safeguards open-source innovation while focusing enforcement on bad actors.
