Chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Gary Gensler said that the key US financial regulator is watching the space of decentralized finance gaining popularity today and will take legislative measures towards them if necessary.

In particular, he singled out DeFi projects that reward industry participants with management tokens and other incentives – such platforms could come under SEC scrutiny regardless of the level of decentralization.

“In any project, there are developers who not only write software (albeit open source) but also have some level of power and influence. There’s always some incentive structure for promoters and sponsors,” Gensler emphasized in a conversation with Wall Street Journal this Wednesday.

Gensler said the term DeFi is “a little misleading” because projects from this industry “contribute to what can be decentralized in some aspects but highly centralized in other aspects.” In his view, most of the decentralized funding platforms can be compared to peer-to-peer lending services, which are regulated by the SEC.

Note that this is not the first time Gensler has called for controls on DeFi. Earlier this month, he said at a congressional hearing:

“In my opinion, the legislative priority should focus on cryptocurrency trading, credit and DeFi platforms.”