DeFi

Decentralized Finance (“DeFi”) is transforming global finance through open, transparent, and permissionless systems. Blockchain Association advocates for policies that recognize and preserve the potential of DeFi while ensuring consumer protection, market integrity, and continued U.S. leadership in digital asset innovation.

The Policy Issue

Unclear rules risk treating open-source protocols as financial intermediaries, threatening innovation and U.S. leadership.

Our Work

Legislative and Regulatory Advocacy

Blockchain Association leads bipartisan engagement on DeFi, collaborating with policymakers on proposed laws to protect the development of self-custodial applications and other components of decentralized technology.

Legal Defense

We participate in strategic litigation, including challenges to overly broad regulatory interpretations that misclassify DeFi protocols and wrongfully prosecute developers as unregistered intermediaries.

Education & Briefings

Our DeFi Working Group hosts regular Capitol Hill education days to explain protocol infrastructure and the benefits of disintermediated, permissionless financial technology.

Key Principles

Open Innovation

DeFi empowers individuals to access financial services directly through blockchain technology. We support frameworks that protect U.S.-based innovation and preserve open access to financial infrastructure.

Developer Protections

Policymakers must draw distinctions between decentralized infrastructure and centralized intermediaries to avoid misclassifying and wrongfully punishing software developers, users, and infrastructure providers.