DeFi Debrief: Week of April 27, 2026
May 4, 2026
New Data Privacy Bills Introduced; Acting Attorney General Blanche Discusses Software Developer Protections; and more.
House Committees Introduce Data Privacy Bills
On April 22, 2026, the House Financial Services and House Energy and Commerce Committees announced two landmark data privacy bills, the GUARD Financial Data Act and the SECURE Data Act. Together, these bills represent a joint effort between the two committees to create a national standard on data privacy.
The bills would require technology companies and financial institutions to limit the collection of consumer data and obtain explicit opt-in consent when handling sensitive information. The legislation would also grant consumers the right to request deletion of their data, among other protections. You can read a one-pager about the bills here.
Acting Attorney General Blanche Discusses Developer Protections at Bitcoin 2026
On April 27, 2026, Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel joined Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal for a virtual discussion at the Bitcoin 2026 conference, where Grewal moderated a conversation on the government’s approach to digital assets. The conversation examined the DOJ’s posture toward the crypto industry under the Trump administration, with developer protections a key topic of discussion. Blanche stated:
“If you are developing software, if you’re a coder, if you were part of that process and you’re not the third party user and you are not helping and knowingly the third party is using what you develop to commit crimes, you are not going to be investigated and not going to be charged.”
Notably, Blanche said that developers under investigation and their counsel “should feel very comfortable communicating” with his office if they believe prosecutors are acting inconsistently with the DOJ’s April 2025 memo. While this is a positive sign from the DOJ, durable clarity and protections for developers require concrete legislative action.
You can watch the full interview here.
DEF is Long DeFi: Treasury Management Update
The DEF team is now actively deploying portions of our treasury’s balance sheet into leading DeFi protocols: Aave, Aerodrome, Compound, Uniswap, and Morpho. DeFi is the future of finance. You can read more about our treasury management strategy here.
Notable and Quotable
“We need innovation, we need smart coders, and we need open source coding. We need to be able to put together platforms that make the industry better. And the coders or the folks that are upstream or downstream of the coders shouldn’t feel like they are going to be prosecuted because some third-party down the road uses whatever was developed to commit crimes.”
– Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche remarks at Bitcoin 2026
