The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has closed its nearly four‑year investigation into decentralized lending protocol Aave without recommending any enforcement action, according to Aave founder Stani Kulechov.

This story is an excerpt from the Unchained Daily newsletter.

“DeFi has faced unfair regulatory pressure in recent years. We’re glad to put this behind us as we enter a new era where developers can truly build the future of finance,” said Kulechov, sharing a copy of the SEC’s enforcement closure letter on X. 

Aave’s native token AAVE rallied 7% after the news to an intraday high of $195 before retreating to around $185 as of Tuesday evening.

Earlier this month, tokenization platform Ondo Finance also revealed that the SEC had closed a multi-year investigation into its platform.

The New York Times reported that the SEC has dropped 60% of crypto-related cases after Donald Trump returned to the Oval Office.