DEF’s April 2026 Recap
May 15, 2026
DEF’s April Recap
Below you’ll find a recap of what the DeFi Education Fund (DEF) was up to in April 2026. If you have any questions or would like to learn more about a specific activity, please do not hesitate to reach out to contact@defieducationfund.org.
DEF Led Coalition Asks SEC to Formalize Guidance on DeFi User Interfaces
On April 21, 2026, DEF, alongside a coalition of builders, investors, users, and advocates across the digital assets industry, submitted a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The letter responds to the April 13 statement from the Division of Trading and Markets staff regarding the potential application of broker-dealer registration requirements to non-custodial user interfaces “designed to assist users engaging in user-initiated crypto asset securities transactions.”
In our letter, we expressed support for the Staff’s thoughtful and pragmatic approach to distinguishing non-custodial user interfaces from activities that constitute broker-dealer activity, and encouraged the SEC to build on the principles in the Statement through notice-and-comment rulemaking to establish durable regulatory clarity.
You can read the full letter here.
Submitting Response to SEC Task Force re. Exchanges and Alternative Trading Systems
On April 1, 2026, DEF submitted a letter to the SEC Crypto Task Force responding to Commissioner Hester Peirce’s December 2025 RFI on how the SEC should approach crypto assets trading on national securities exchanges and alternative trading systems.
In the letter, DEF emphasized that the SEC should not misclassify DeFi technology and developers as exchanges when neither are actually performing exchange functions. Specifically, the letter calls on the SEC to adopt a functional test for an exchange “facility” so that only those actually performing exchange functions are in scope, and not disintermediated software, automated market makers (AMMs), smart contracts, or developers. The letter further urges the SEC to avoid treating developers as a “group of persons” subject to exchange regulation, except in cases where a developer both provides a product that performs an exchange function and acts in concert with an existing exchange or other party to carry out that function. Where there is no shared intent or control over exchange functions, developers should not be treated as an exchange just because their software is used by one.
To read the full letter, click here.
DEF’s CCO in CoinDesk
On April 22, 2026, DEF’s CCO, Jennifer Rosenthal, penned a letter for CoinDesk’s “Long & Short” newsletter.
In her submission, Jennifer writes on the need to protect those building DeFi infrastructure. She says: “Like the early internet in the 1990s, blockchain technology is a novel innovation evolving faster than existing regulation. Engineers developing open, disintermediated systems do not neatly fit into financial regulations designed for a system that assumes the existence of intermediaries. As more individuals and companies interact with decentralized infrastructure, our shared voice can play a constructive role in shaping thoughtful and durable policy outcomes. We should collectively support legislative and regulatory initiatives that foster clarity, reduce uncertainty and enable responsible participation across both centralized and decentralized markets.”
Read the full piece here.
Roman Storm Update
On April 9, 2026, Judge Katherine Polk Failla heard arguments on whether a previous money transmitting conviction should be thrown out.
DEF’s team was in the room of the hearing, with DEF CEO Amanda Tuminelli commenting that the government does not understand the underlying technology: “The lack of nuance, the misrepresentations about how a UI [user interface] functions, and the equivocation between different technologies is really disheartening at this point in the case.”
As a refresher on what’s changed and what arguments are being made this time around, check out DEF’s updated blog post on the matter.
Welcome to DeFi, TradFi
On April 1, 2026, DEF published an X Article that serves as an open letter to TradFi institutions seeking to launch DeFi initiatives.
In the letter, we write: “Frankly, we are thrilled you’re embracing technology innovations that will serve as infrastructure for 21st century finance. You are coming to understand that open-source, permissionless, programmable, noncustodial, globally accessible, and interoperable technology presents major upgrades for certain parts of the financial system. If you’re going to rely on DeFi or connect your customers to DeFi, we at DEF invite you to join us in helping to protect the technology and infrastructure that makes it valuable.”
To read the full letter, click here.
DEF Treasury Management Update
On April 30, 2026, the DEF team shared that we are now actively deploying portions of our treasury’s balance sheet into leading DeFi protocols: Aave, Aerodrome, Compound, Uniswap, and Morpho.
You can learn more about our treasury management strategy here.
April Financial Disclosures
| Donations Received | $1,250,000 |
| Lobbyists | $45,039.05 |
| Public Relations | $25,000 |
| Policy Litigation | $11,650.18 |
| Marcomm & Fundraising | $2,140.75 |
| Operating Expense | $341,770.95 |
April Content and Media by DEF
Select Media
- Amanda Tuminelli on Crypto in America
- Amanda Tuminelli on CoinDesk’s Policy Protocol
- Ayana Dow on Technically Legal Podcast
- The Block: DeFi Education Fund and other crypto leaders press SEC to lock in DeFi broker guidance
- The DeFi Education Fund, alongside 35 other crypto industry leaders, is urging the Securities and Exchange Commission to formalize its recent decentralized finance interface guidance into formal rulemaking.
- PYMNTS: SEC Issues Statement Allowing DeFi Interfaces to Skip Registering as Broker-Dealers
- Reaction from the crypto industry was swift and overwhelmingly positive. Amanda Tuminelli, executive director of the DeFi Education Fund, framed the development in competitive terms. “Tough day for the gatekeepers and the moat protectors… Good day for builders,” she said in a post on X.
- POLITICO: Cops vs. crypto clash looms in the Senate
- “It’s the most important part of the market structure bill, and I actually think it’s the thing that the industry has been the most united on,” said Amanda Tuminelli, the executive director of an industry-backed nonprofit called the DeFi Education Fund.
Blogs/Articles/Papers
- An Open Letter to TradFi Institutions Launching DeFi Initiatives
- DEF Treasury Update: Doubling Down, We Are Long DeFi
