Mike Selig Advanced to the Senate Floor for Confirmation as CFTC Chairman

On November 19, 2025, the Senate Agriculture Committee held a nomination hearing for Michael Selig to serve as the Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The committee voted party-line to advance his nomination the following day, November 20, 2025, and is currently waiting for a full Senate vote.

Notably, during the hearing, Chairman John Boozman (R-AR) asked about Selig’s approach to DeFi regulation. More specifically, how to ensure that activities with respect to technology are not subject to inappropriate intermediary registration regimes. Selig responded that understanding the features of DeFi is key, explaining: “There is this issue of regulation-by-enforcement, and sometimes we take a one-size-fits-all approach to all types of financial products and services. But really, blockchain enables such a broad swath of new types of products, services, applications, and so it may not make sense in many cases to apply financial regulation, for example, to a video game app that runs on a blockchain.”

“So, I think when we’re thinking about DeFi, it’s something of a buzzword, but really we should be looking to onchain markets and onchain applications, and thinking about the features of these applications, as well as where there’s an actual intermediary involved, where we have some operator, administrator, and in many cases, that may not be and so we have to think about the best approach…”

As highlighted in a prior DeFi Debrief, Selig has extensive regulatory and crypto experience. He is expected to help modernize the CFTC’s approach to digital asset innovation and strengthen America’s competitiveness, including in DeFi markets. DEF applauds the Committee for advancing Selig’s nomination, and encourages the Senate to move swiftly toward a full vote to confirm him as the next CFTC Chairman.

DEF Joins SPI Letter to the Administration

On November 20, 2025, Solana Policy Institute (SPI) sent a letter to the Administration outlining practical next steps to help the U.S. lead on crypto innovation. DEF proudly joined 65+ organizations as a signatory.

The letter highlights the importance of developer protections and explicitly asks agencies to protect and promote American DeFi innovation, and to implement key elements of the President’s Working Group report related to DeFi. 

Read the full letter here.

New DEF Paper “Cybersecurity in DeFi: The Case for an SDO-Driven Approach”

On November 14, 2025, DEF published a paper, entitled: “Cybersecurity in DeFi: The Case for an SDO-Driven Approach.” 

This paper tackles a timely question—how can we effectively combat illicit finance and protect consumers that engage with open, permissionless blockchain systems & DeFi? The paper digs into the problem and presents a solution: the creation of a standards development organization (SDO) with cybersecurity standards for blockchain and DeFi driven by input from industry experts and government agencies.

Please read the full paper here.

New DEF Blog “The Persistent Poverty Premium & Possibilities of DeFi”

On November 19, 2025, DEF published a new blog, entitled: “The Persistent Poverty Premium & Possibilities of DeFi.” The blog explores why the cost of U.S. financial services for lower-income families continues to rise despite technological advances. 

In this article, DEF’s Chief Communications Officer, Jennifer Rosenthal, revisits a phrase coined in the early 2000s—”the poverty premium”—and explores the possibility of DeFi as a solution. She writes: “the poverty premium persists because the current, layered, antiquated financial infrastructure makes it expensive to serve low-income customers profitably. Nothing is free, and DeFi doesn’t eliminate costs entirely, but by removing intermediaries and leveraging software rather than outdated financial systems, we can dramatically reduce the cost of financial services for everyday people and give them greater control of their finances.” 

Please read the full article here.

Giving Tuesday and DeFi Education Foundation

DeFi Education Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, was launched to further DEF’s mission of educating policymakers about DeFi, protecting software developers, and advocating for sound DeFi policy, while also enabling donors to enjoy the benefits of charitable giving. 

Especially while crypto market structure and regulations are being developed in real time, your support is more important than ever. Donating to the DeFi Education Foundation powers DEF’s work and is one of the most effective ways that you can help shape the future of DeFi and ensure it is appropriately represented. 

If you’re interested in supporting the DeFi Education Foundation in honor of Giving Tuesday, you can do so here. Our work is made possible by your generosity. Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter, and for helping us secure lasting wins for DeFi!

DeFi Dictionary

DeFi innovates beyond traditional client-server models by replacing centralized intermediaries with distributed, blockchain-based protocols that allow users to interact peer-to-peer. Cloudflare’s outage earlier this week makes this week’s word of the week extra relevant: client-server model.

Notable and Quotable

“In a free society, the rules that govern economic life should be knowable, reasoned, and appropriately constrained. When we stretch the securities laws beyond their proper scope, when we treat every innovation as presumptively suspect, we stray from that core principle. When we recognize the limits of our authority, when we acknowledge that investment contracts can end and networks can stand on their own merits, we honor it.”

——Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins at Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia “Inside ‘Project Crypto’”

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