DeFi Debrief: Week of May 4, 2026

DEF OCC Comment Letter; Op-Ed on Developer Protections; Amanda Tuminelli on Law of Code

DEF and SPI Submit OCC Comment Letter on Proposed Rules for Stablecoin Issuers 

On May 1, 2026, DEF and Solana Policy Institute (SPI) submitted a comment letter to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) in response to the agency’s request for comment on proposed rules implementing the GENIUS Act, which would establish a federal licensing framework for payment stablecoin issuers.

In the letter, DEF and SPI argue that a “coherent and durable” approach to implementing the framework should be grounded in three core principles: (1) control as the defining regulatory principle, (2) function and principle over form, and (3) alignment with the statutory text and existing guidance.

You can read DEF’s X thread on the letter here. 

Law Enforcement Leaders Publish Op-eds Supporting Developer Protections

This week, two law enforcement leaders authored opinion pieces arguing that misapplying 18 U.S.C. § 1960 to non-custodial blockchain developers is a misuse of a statute designed for traditional money transmitters. 

In an op-ed published in RealClear Markets on May 2, 2026, John Bridge, a retired Senior Inspector with the U.S. Marshals Service, gave a historical overview of American tech policy, underscoring that  “writing and publishing code is not money transmission.” Bridge further contended that Congress should apply to blockchain technology the same principle of technological neutrality that it historically applied to telephone networks, the internet, and dual-use government technologies like TOR and GPS. 

In an op-ed published in Coindesk on May 6, 2026, Democratic Sacramento District Attorney Thien Ho, running for U.S. Congress, explained that ambiguous rules and regulation by prosecution harm not only developers, but also U.S. competitiveness. These practices, he wrote, “drive industries underground and offshore,” ceding American technological leadership and pushing innovation beyond the reach of U.S. law enforcement. 

Notably, both Bridge and Ho expressed support for robust enforcement against custodial platforms that facilitate illicit activity, who actually act as money transmitters, or the bad actors themselves. The answer, as Ho explained, is to “identify the actual bad actor, build the case and prosecute with evidence.”

DEF’s CEO Amanda Tuminelli Discusses Money Transmission Laws on ‘Law of Code’ 

On May 4, 2026, DEF’s CEO and CLO Amanda Tuminelli joined Jacob Robinson on a Law of Code special long-form episode on money transmission laws, developer protections, and related pending legislation in Congress. Amanda highlighted nuances of the DOJ’s 2025 Memo, Storm v. US trial, the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA) and the Promoting Innovation in Blockchain Development Act. 

You can listen to the podcast here. 

Notable and Quotable 

“Neither the developers nor the software itself controls other people’s funds or transfers funds on their behalf. Charging them under a statute built for traditional financial intermediaries is a mistake, because it is misinformed and misdirected.” 

– Thien Ho, Sacramento District Attorney in CoinDesk Op-ed “The Government Should Promote Innovation, Not Punish it”