top of page
Op-Eds

Op-Eds & Journals

Unchained: Why It’s Critical for the US to Pursue a Pro-Innovation Approach to Software Regulation

Authored by Miller Whitehouse-Levine & Lizandro Pieper; October 2024

Blockworks: The SEC has been wrong about ‘crypto asset securities’ all along

Authored by Amanda Tuminelli & Jake Chervinsky; October 2024

CoinDesk: Crypto’s Latest Privacy Battle

Authored by Amanda Tuminelli & Marisa Coppel; June 2024

Blockworks: It’s time for Congress to protect the crypto henhouse

Authored by Miller Whitehouse-Levine; May 2024

The Journal of Taxation of Financial Products: Examining the Definition of “Digital Asset Middleman” Under the Proposed Digital Asset Broker Reporting Regulations

Authored by Lizandro Pieper; May 2024

CoinDesk: In Lejilex vs. SEC, Crypto Goes on Offense in the Courts

Authored by Amanda Tuminelli & Jake Chervinsky; February 2024

CoinDesk: Congress Gets the Runaround From Regulators, Again

Authored by Miller Whitehouse-Levine & Kristin Smith; November 2023

CoinDesk: When Did Privacy Become a Bad Word?

Authored by Miller Whitehouse-Levine & Amanda Tuminelli; August 2023

Blockworks: Crypto rights are fundamental American rights

Authored by Amanda Tuminelli & Marisa Coppel; August 2023

Blockworks: Don’t Drive Crypto Into the EU’s Open Arms

Authored by Miller Whitehouse-Levine; May 2023

The American Conservative: The Wrong Lesson from the Fall of FTX

Authored by Lizandro Pieper; April 2023

CoinTelegraph: CBDCs will lead to absolute government control

Authored by Miller Whitehouse-Levine; April 2023

CoinDesk: Why Ex-SEC Official John Reed Stark Is Wrong About Crypto 

Authored by Miller Whitehouse-Levine; February 2023

Fortune: What the media gets wrong in its persistent crypto criticism 

Authored by Miller Whitehouse-Levine; July 2022

The Well News: DeFi Needs Flexible and Fair Regulation, Not Just Enforcement

Authored by Miller Whitehouse-Levine; June 2022

CoinDesk: The Scarcity Mindset Driving Crypto's Energy Critics 

Authored by Miller Whitehouse-Levine; May 2022

Decrypt: Cryptocurrencies Won’t Help Russia Evade Sanctions

Authored by Miller Whitehouse-Levine; March 2022

Media

“The national-security-related policy issues are going to be some of the stickier ones, but are ripe for debate at this point,” Miller Whitehouse-Levine, chief executive of the DeFi Education Fund, told MarketWatch...Levine said that the “Sacks appointment signals the incoming administration’s intent to pivot from the Biden administration’s hostile stance on crypto,” but added that there is yet no consensus on how the Trump administration should approach national-security concerns over crypto.

A new report out this week from the DeFi Education Fund highlights the current “ambiguous regulatory landscape” for this “new frontier of financial technology” and calls on Congress to provide clarity. It notes that Treasury’s Fincen has issued guidance that indicates developers aren’t covered by the Bank Secrecy Act. But that hasn’t stopped federal prosecutors from charging the Tornado Cash coders with money laundering and sanctions violations. “For a lot of the industry, people are worried and don’t know where they stand on things,” says Laz Pieper, the DeFi fund’s policy associate who authored the paper. “We think Congress is the best avenue for making that clarity.”

“There’s been a splintering in priorities post election with the absence of the Gary Damocles hanging over everyone’s head,” Miller Whitehouse-Levine, CEO of crypto lobby group DeFi Education Fund, told DL News.

Lizandro Pieper, policy associate at the DeFi Education Fund, said Congress should be the "primary force" in adopting rules for digital assets, not regulatory agencies. "We are pleased that the CFPB considered our concerns and excluded digital asset transactions from its finalized rule today," Pieper said in an emailed statement to The Block. "The rule will now only consider US dollar transactions in its larger participant threshold."

Miller Whitehouse-Levine, the chief executive officer of DEF, said in a statement that the suit was targeting SEC "overreach." "DeFi, and crypto broadly, promises to make financial services and the digital economy more accessible, efficient, interoperable, dependable, and consumer-focused," he said. "The SEC currently stands as a barrier to realizing this promise."

Led by Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman, the lawsuit was jointly filed in a Kentucky district court in partnership with 17 other Republican attorneys general from Nebraska, Tennessee, West Virginia, Iowa, Texas, Mississippi, Montana, Arkansas, Ohio, Kansas, Missouri, Indiana, Utah, Louisiana, South Carolina, Oklahoma and Florida. The complaint was filed in collaboration with crypto advocacy group DeFi Education Fund, which advocates for sound policy in the decentralized finance space.

But thematically, the bills do the same thing, DeFi Education Fund CEO Miller Whitehouse-Levine told DL News. They look to apply existing regulations to the sector, against its ethos of decentralisation.

Whitehouse-Levine, the CEO of the DeFi Education Fund, said that the most concerning aspect about the Tornado Cash debate is that it's playing out in court, rather than in Congress or through a regulatory agency's rulemaking authority.

In March, Beba and DeFi Education Fund sued the SEC, arguing that token airdrops cannot violate the so-called Howey Test — the nearly century-old law used to determine whether a transaction represents an “investment contract” — in part because there is no reasonable expectation of profit.

“The SEC decided that the vast majority of digital assets, which were long understood to not be ‘securities,’ now are securities,” claimed the DEF and co-plaintiff Beba, an apparel company based in Texas, in their brief filed last week. “The [Administrative Procedure Act] required that the SEC’s policy go through notice and comment and fall within its statutory authority, but the SEC’s policy did neither.”

Amanda Tuminelli, also representing DeFi Education Fund, added that Failla’s decision to dismiss on a “matter of law,” versus considering the factual issues, was “offensive.”

“We knew going in that the standard for this decision is extremely high and this type of motion is almost never granted, but we had hoped the judge would not accept the government’s novel theory of developer liability,” Amanda Tuminelli, chief legal officer at the DeFi Education Fund, told DL News in a statement. “We believe the responsibility for third party criminal use of open-source software should lie with those third parties who intentionally use tools for illicit purposes, not the creator of the neutral tool.”

During a Sep. 26 telephonic conference, District Judge Katherine Polk Failla of the Southern District of New York denied Storm’s motion to dismiss three charges brought against him by the U.S. Department of Justice, according to DeFi Education Fund’s Chief Legal Officer Amanda Tuminelli.

DeFi Education Fund attorney Amanda Tuminelli brought Smart Brevity vibes to a congressional hearing on decentralized finance this week. What they're saying: "First, DeFi is different from and an improvement upon traditional finance, because it does not rely on intermediaries," Tuminelli told the subcommittee on digital assets on Tuesday

Amanda Tuminelli, Chief Legal Officer of the DeFi Education Fund, was more forceful in her advocacy, repeatedly arguing that DeFi is fundamentally different from traditional finance and so required a tailored regulatory approach, rather than one-size-fits-all rules. Consumer education about the risks of DeFi should be prioritized, she said, arguing that the industry has already come up with some solutions in that vein, such as fraud and scam alerts built into frontend software.

Representatives heard from five witnesses: Brian Avello, chief legal officer of UDHC; Rebecca Rettig, chief legal and policy officer of Polygon Labs; Amanda Tuminelli, chief legal officer of the DeFi Education Fund; Peter Van Valkenburgh, director of research at Coin Center; and Mark Allen Hays, senior policy analyst at Americans for Financial Reform. Lawmakers will be in session until Sept. 27 when they will break for an election recess until Nov. 12. Tuesday’s hearing comes as Congress’s Sept. 30th deadline to pass a funding bill looms.

Amanda Tuminelli, the chief legal officer at DeFi Education Fund, said in her opening statement that traditional finance “relies on intermediaries that often serve as gatekeepers to finance.” “Big banks can and do deny access to the system for discriminatory reasons or no reasons. But DeFi is open access, anyone with an internet connection has access to a DeFi protocol and that is the epitome of financial inclusion,” she added.

In a separate filing late last week, the Blockchain Association and DeFi Education Fund told the Texas court the CAT would provide unprecedented insight into people’s blockchain transactions. Because the database connects personally identifying information with wallet addresses, anyone with access to the CAT could see all blockchain transactions a person makes, they said.

Crypto wasn’t mentioned in the regulations that set up the CAT. But the Blockchain Association and the DeFi Education Fund note that the commission under Gensler has moved (via enforcement cases and rulemakings) to categorize some market participants as brokers or dealers or exchanges. So it's not a leap to assume token transactions would need to be reported to the database. That, the trade groups’ brief argues, could include providing details that link wallet addresses to the names of their owners – a situation that would have massive privacy implications.

The Blockchain Association and the DeFi Education Fund say the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's newly operational database poses privacy concerns for millions and could loop in digital assets.

The DeFi Education Fund and the Blockchain Association jointly filed an amicus brief in a case brought by two individuals and the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA) against the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), its chairman Gary Gensler and the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT). The complaint does not mention cryptocurrency or blockchain, but the organizations argue that the CAT could have a profound negative effect on crypto users.

The Blockchain Association (BA) and its sister organization, the DeFi Education Fund (DEF), agree. The crypto lobbyist groups filed an amicus brief last week in support of class action defendants, furthering that Rule 613 has even more detrimental effects on the crypto industry.

The DeFi Education Fund said it purchased a patent from True Return Systems that will end litigation against MakerDAO and Compound Protocol. The patent in question is a “method and system for separating storage and process of a computerized ledger for improved function.” The patent was approved by the US Patent and Trademark Office back in 2018.

Cryptocurrency advocacy group the DeFi Education Fund on Monday announced it reached an agreement with a blockchain solutions firm it accused of "trolling" a pair of decentralized crypto protocols, purchasing the patent at issue and dedicating it to the public in return for a dismissal of the suits.

The DeFi Education Fund (DEF) on Monday reached an agreement with True Return Systems (TRS) to purchase a patent for oracle-like technology. The disputed patent was at the heart of two legal complaints against MakerDAO and Compound, a pair of decentralized finance protocols.

The patent wording itself is admittedly vague, something that the DeFi Education Fund was quick to point out when it filed an Inter Partes Review challenge with the USPTO.

The DeFi Education Fund (DEF) purchased a patent owned by True Return Systems (TRS) that was the basis of lawsuits against decentralized autonomous organizations MakerDAO and Compound Protocol for infringement.

Last Friday, blockchain tipsheet sat down with Amanda Tuminelli, Chief Legal Officer of decentralized finance advocacy firm DeFi Education Fund (DEF). We discussed both the latest and the “basics” in crypto mixing as well as the Department of Justice’s indictment in August 2023 of Tornado Cash software developers Roman Storm and Roman Seminov.

Amanda Tuminelli, chief legal officer at DEF, says in a statement to Law360 that the SEC's bid for dismissal focuses mostly on "procedural and jurisdictional arguments, and we look forward to refuting them."

The Supreme Court's decision gives the crypto industry an advantage, said Amanda Tuminelli, chief legal officer at the DeFi Education Fund. "This ruling means that executive agencies, like the SEC and CFTC, will need to be more cautious in extending their regulatory reach without clear statutory authorization, especially in novel and rapidly evolving fields like crypto and AI," Tuminelli said in an emailed statement to The Block.

“​​In the absence of specific legislation granting and clearly outlining regulatory authority over crypto, federal regulators are attempting to adapt their existing statutory authorities to cover crypto-related activities,” crypto advocacy group The DeFi Education Fund said Friday. “This approach is problematic because these authorities are ill-suited for the task, their application is unclear, and their authority is questionable.”

"We appreciate that candidates recognize the importance of not only debating how to regulate digital assets but also how to create responsible regulation that does not stifle innovation in the United States," said a spokesperson for the DeFi Education Fund.

DeFi Education Fund’s chief legal officer Amanda Tuminelli told Decrypt that Judge Shelby could have gone further by dismissing the case with prejudice. Still, she said the court would likely with DEBT Box if the case was retried. “The judge did impose an important condition on the SEC in his dismissal order: if the SEC chooses to bring this case against the same defendants again, they must do so before Judge Shelby,” Tuminelli explained. “And we know that Judge Shelby will not forget what happened the first time around.”

“We expect the Senate to continue working on and amending FIT21, and our focus will remain on ensuring that there are protections and legal certainty for developers and users of decentralized networks and protocols,” Miller Whitehouse-Levine, CEO of the DeFi Education Fund, said. “We look forward to working with the Senate on these core issues.”

Are gun manufacturers held liable for shootings? Is the U.S. government responsible if physical cash is used for crime? The double standard in Pertsev’s case is troubling. As the DeFi Education Fund put it in an amicus brief: “With no limiting principle in place, nearly all developers who create open-source software would be exposed to criminal liability for activity outside of their control years or decades later.”

A spokesperson from the DeFi Education Fund said they were disappointed in the outcome of Pertsev's case in the Netherlands but that it should have no impact on the U.S. case against Storm. "As we argued in our previously submitted amicus brief in the case against Roman Storm, the government's theory of liability in the indictment is unprecedented," a spokesperson for the fund said in an emailed statement. "According to the allegations in the indictment, software developers who create open source, general use software would be held criminally liable when third party bad actors use that software years after it was created and with no direct or active engagement between the developers and those bad actors." "This is simply not the law as it stands in the U.S.," they added.

“The government would be free to target software developers aligned with politically disfavored causes and industries, who would have little in the way of defence or recourse,” the DeFi Education Fund wrote in a legal brief it filed with the court to support Storm.

The three amicus briefs were filed by Coin Center, the Blockchain Association, and the DeFi Education Fund. The briefs, though written and filed separately, make largely similar arguments against the government's characterization of the case in its indictment.

In April 5 filings in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the Blockchain Association, Coin Center and DeFi Education Fund argued that Tornado Cash did not have control of the funds or messages users sent through the cryptocurrency mixer. The advocacy groups separately claimed that the three felony counts Roman faces should be dismissed, citing First Amendment issues regarding the Tornado Cash co-founder allegedly violating sanctions and the U.S. government “misunderstand[ing] the basic relationship between smart contract protocols and their developers” regarding allegations of money laundering.

The second suit came last month, when industry group the DeFi Education Fund joined with Beba LLC in a case against the SEC. Beba makes luggage and has airdropped digital tokens as part of a marketing strategy. It wants a ruling that the airdrops weren’t a securities transaction. DEF and Beba, which filed their lawsuit in the Western District of Texas, are also challenging the SEC’s “unwritten policy” on crypto rules as a violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, arguing the agency should’ve gone through a formal rulemaking.

Days after being hit with sanctions in a US district court, the Securities and Exchange Commission was served another lawsuit Monday, this time from co-defendants — the DeFi Education Fund and NFT issuer Beba.

The lawsuit's second claim, on which the decentralized finance advocacy group DeFi Education Fund is joining as co-plaintiff, asserts that the SEC adopted a new policy — without notice — since chairman Gary Gensler's 2021 appointment.

A crypto industry group and a West Texas apparel company are suing the Securities and Exchange Commission, arguing the agency’s “poorly conceived” crypto policy needs to go through rulemaking.

The DeFi Education Fund and apparel company Beba are suing the Securities and Exchange Commission, asking a Texas district court to declare that their $BEBA token airdrop is not a security and to enforce the Administrative Procedure Act on the SEC's rule-making process.

Waco-based brand Beba LLC and the DeFi Education Fund told a Texas federal court that the SEC "gets the law wrong" when it targets free distribution of crypto tokens, known as airdrops, as unregistered securities transactions. They're asking the court to declare that Beba's airdrop is on the right side of securities law and that the regulator can't broadly enforce its "new unwritten policy" that the bulk of digital asset transactions are securities. Read more at: https://www.law360.com/articles/1817238/crypto-group-apparel-co-sue-over-sec-crypto-policy?copied=1

There’s been a lot of litigation over Gary Gensler’s rules. But today, the SEC got hit with an unusual lawsuit – over regulations that it hasn’t issued and an enforcement action that it hasn’t brought. No surprise, it’s coming from the crypto industry. The case, filed in a Texas federal court by the DeFi Education Fund and a company called Beba, is pretty unique. It’s known as a pre-enforcement challenge, and the court is being asked to declare that a free token the apparel firm created to attract customers is not a security – and thus won’t set off an SEC probe.

Battered by a US crackdown, the crypto industry is tired of playing defence against the Securities and Exchange Commission. That’s why the DeFi Education Fund has been trying for months to find the perfect plaintiff with both the standing and backbone to take on Gary Gensler’s crypto-hostile agency.

On Monday, the DeFi Education Fund (DEF) filed a lawsuit in a Texas federal court against the SEC, arguing that Beba, a Texas-based apparel company, did not violate U.S. securities laws by airdropping its BEBA crypto token to customers for free.

The DeFi Education Fund teamed up with Beba Collection, a small apparel company, in a bid to get regulatory clarity from the courts on airdrops.

“I don't think anyone in the crypto industry is surprised that the SEC was so focused on its own advocacy that it lied to the court in order to bolster its position,” Amanda Tuminelli, Chief Legal Officer at DeFi Education Fund, told Decrypt. “My hope is that any judge with the SEC before them as a litigant will hold them to the highest standards and ensure the SEC supports their allegations with verifiable facts.”

Industry groups Blockchain Association and DeFi Education Fund made similar assertions in a joint brief on Thursday, telling the California court the Kraken suit is "yet another attempt by the SEC to sweep practically all digital assets within its regulatory purview" under its investment contract theory. The brief, penned by appellate heavyweight Paul Clement of Clement & Murphy PLLC, said the SEC has employed "constantly shifting theories" in its various crypto enforcement cases that have confused the industry and failed to establish where the agency believes its authority ends. "In short, none of the SEC's ever-evolving approaches can justify its ongoing efforts to expand its regulatory jurisdiction far beyond the bounds Congress imposed in the federal securities laws," the brief said.

Amanda Tuminelli, chief legal officer for crypto advocacy group the DeFi Education Fund, said in a statement to Law360 that the LEJILEX case sends a message to the SEC that industry participants intend to challenge the regulator on its crypto authority. "A ruling on the important questions raised by this suit would provide precedent for other federal courts to follow and would achieve a modicum of clarity for the sector in the United States," said Tuminelli. The DEF is not involved in the lawsuit.

The DeFi Education Fund (DEF), which also submitted a comment letter in 2022, said on Tuesday that the SEC’s new rule is “misguided and unworkable.” “While the SEC acknowledged receiving comments discussing DeFi, including our concerns, the SEC not only failed to confront the substance of our concerns but also failed altogether to articulate any discernible path to compliance for DeFi market participants,” DEF said. “Imposing obligations on entities in the DeFi ecosystem that cannot be complied with is wrong, impractical, and hostile to innovation.”

The DeFi Education Fund (DEF), which also submitted a comment letter in 2022, said on Tuesday that the SEC’s new rule is “misguided and unworkable.” “While the SEC acknowledged receiving comments discussing DeFi, including our concerns, the SEC not only failed to confront the substance of our concerns but also failed altogether to articulate any discernible path to compliance for DeFi market participants,” DEF said. “Imposing obligations on entities in the DeFi ecosystem that cannot be complied with is wrong, impractical, and hostile to innovation.”

The DeFi Education Fund was among crypto groups that objected to the original proposal. The group called Tuesday's final version "misguided and unworkable." "The SEC not only failed to confront the substance of our concerns but also failed altogether to articulate any discernible path to compliance for DeFi market participants," the organization said in a statement. "Imposing obligations on entities in the DeFi ecosystem that cannot be complied with is wrong, impractical, and hostile to innovation."

The DeFi Education Fund called the adopted rulemaking on Tuesday "misguided and unworkable." "While the SEC acknowledged receiving comments discussing DeFi, including our concerns, the SEC not only failed to confront the substance of our concerns but also failed altogether to articulate any discernible path to compliance for DeFi market participants," CEO Miller Whitehouse-Levine said in an emailed statement. "Imposing obligations on entities in the DeFi ecosystem that cannot be complied with is wrong, impractical, and hostile to innovation."

“The breadth and ambiguity of the proposal’s qualitative standards would raise many questions about the status of investors who use AMMs, other DeFi protocols, and other all-to-all execution protocols,” DeFi Education Fund CEO Miller Whitehouse Levine wrote in a letter.

For example, "everyday economic activity" like liquidity pools or swaps might be captured in the part of the proposal that addresses users exchanging different types of digital assets, a letter from the DeFi Education Fund said.

Further, in a memo she wrote when dismissing a lawsuit against Uniswap founder Hayden Adams, Failla distinguished between decentralized apps, protocols and tokens, in an “indication of how careful she will be here,” Chief Legal Officer at the DeFi Education Fund Amanda Tuminelli said.

A spokesperson from the DeFi Education Fund (DEF), a DeFi-focused research and advocacy group, told The Defiant the hearing was “a step forward.” Judge Failla called the group’s amicus brief, which the DEF filed in August, “really fine” for explaining what crypto wallets and staking really are. “That actually, in some respects, makes more sense to me than the [SEC’s] description of it in the complaint,” Failla said. “On wallets and staking, the court rightly noted the paucity of factual allegations in the SEC’s complaint, and we were happy to hear that our amicus brief on these issues was useful in the court’s understanding of them,” the spokesperson said.

“This is the most important case in decades for commerce in this country, the relationship between business and the government, and the relative balance of the legislative and executive branches,” Miller Whitehouse Levine, CEO of DeFi Education Fund, told DL News.

After years of ambiguity, 2024 and the years to follow look likely to cement the U.S. government’s relationship to digital assets. The stakes are high: Should the Biden administration get its way, DeFi might soon be effectively outlawed in America, the DeFi Education Fund’s Miller Whitehouse-Levine previously told Decrypt.

“Regulatory agencies — the CFPB included — are trying to grab jurisdiction in a way that creates statutory contradictions,” Miller Whitehouse-Levine, CEO of the DeFi Education Fund, told DL News.

“At the moment, it is literally not possible to comply with the reporting requirement,” Miller Whitehouse-Levine, CEO at the DeFi Education Fund, told Cointelegraph. What’s needed instead for the 60 million Americans who own digital assets today are “fit-for-purpose tax provisions” that basically regard crypto as a different sort of case.

The challenge has been led by the DeFi Education Fund, a crypto advocacy group that says that the technology the patent covers predates the patent itself and has called True Return Systems a "patent troll" that threatens to force anyone using oracle systems to pay. On the same day in 2022, True Return Systems brought two suits against what amount to technology programs, arguing that they were infringing on the True Return Systems patent.

“I think it's quite clear that it applies to pretty much any transaction in which someone is, in exchange for a good or service, receiving over $10,000 worth of crypto assets,” Miller Whitehouse-Levine, CEO of the crypto lobbying group DeFi Education Fund, told Decrypt.

For years, sporadic enforcement actions and dragged-out lawsuits have defined the American government’s relationship to the crypto sector. According to Miller Whitehouse-Levine, CEO of crypto lobbying group DeFi Education Fund, 2024 looks poised to finally bring some much-craved certainty to U.S. crypto regulation—for better or worse.

Newspaper icon
  • What is DeFi?
    DeFi is an umbrella term for open-source software protocols that run on the internet that allow people to conduct financial activities in a new way. DeFi is about creating universally accessible financial infrastructure that anyone with an internet connection can access and use, and that’s something anyone can get on board with who values things like accessibility, independence, self-custody, or autonomy in their financial lives.
  • What are the benefits of DeFi?
    DeFi is software that can increase economic access for everyone by making the digital economy fairer, more transparent and more equitable. Increased Transparency: DeFi protocols increase operational transparency about the mechanics of market infrastructures and associated fees by using open-source software, which makes transactions more transparent and auditable by using blockchain-based records. Equitable Market Access: DeFi protocols are open and available to anyone in the world with an internet connection, giving them the potential to significantly expand access to financial services.[1] That access empowers more people to use financial services without having to go through intermediaries that may prevent sectors of the market from participation, either through unavailability, absolute prohibitions, excessive pricing, or unfair or discriminatory treatment. 24/7/365 Liquidity: Users can access and use markets at all times of the day without the need for closing markets at the end of each day. Among other things, this eliminates the risk of capital dislocations due to illiquid aftermarket trading in traditional systems. Lower Costs and Faster Settlement: DeFi protocols reduce friction and transaction costs for the creation, distribution, trading, and settlement of financial assets with faster settlement times for users. Improved Security: Transactions using DeFi protocols are recorded on blockchains, the records of which cannot be manipulated or amended, offering greater security to users. Greater Control: The absence of intermediaries in DeFi protocols provides individuals with the ability to custody their own assets, giving them greater control and certainty. Additionally, in some instances, market participants can directly develop community-governance standards. Greater Uptime: Permissionless blockchains are operationally resilient (the Ethereum blockchain has never gone down), whereas traditional market infrastructures have had major technology failures, resulting in downtime for securities markets. Elimination of Broker Risk: DeFi protocols have no employees to supervise, no financial risk for users from broker activity or custody, and no interaction between a broker and customers that could result in unlawful sales practices or other unfair and discriminatory dealing. Elimination of Anti-Competitiveness: Users can easily move their self-custodied cryptocurrencies from one protocol to another at any time without significant friction, unlike the “siloed” experience in traditional financial services.
  • Why does DeFi challenge the traditional approach to financial regulation?
    To a large extent, the existing financial regulatory system applies centralized intermediaries. Before the development of cryptocurrencies and DeFi protocols, digital financial activities required the use of intermediating financial institutions. DeFi protocols allow people to engage in economic activities using software instead of financial institutions, similar to how people can use bitcoin’s software to conduct peer-to-peer payments. But “what they are” — open-source software programs that run on the internet — createst insuperable challenges for a regulatory framework predicted on the necessity of intermediating businesses in financial activities. DeFi developers and market participants share those objectives: to protect consumers, prevent illicit financial activity, and limit systemic risks. The problem is that it’s impossible to accomplish those goals using the old toolbox. “No regulation can be static in a dynamic society.” Our approach to accomplishing long-standing policy objectives has always needed to adapt to technological innovation. DeFi is no different. DeFi is something genuinely unprecedented, and we need to develop a new toolbox that can allow for societies to enjoy the benefits of DeFi while simultaneously equipped to accomplish core policy objectives.
  • What is DeFi not?
    DeFi is a truly decentralized alternative to Centralized Finance (CeFi). CeFi relies on trusted intermediaries to effectuate activities on behalf of customers, custody assets and control permissions or access. By contrast, DeFi runs on permissionless protocols that lack centralized intermediation entirely.
  • How does the DeFi Education Fund handle conflicts of interest?
    For any conflicts of interests that may arise over normal course of business, individual members of the DeFi Education Fund will recuse themself from said activity.
  • Does the DeFi Education Fund have members?
    As a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization, we do not have any members.
  • How is the DeFi Education Fund funded?
    We were allocated an initial one million UNI back in August 2021. We also engage in fundraising activities to further support our mission.
  • I have questions, who should I contact?
    For general inquiries, please reach out to contact@defieducationfund.org For media-related inquiries, please reach out to max@defieducationfund.org For grant-related inquiries, please reach out to grants@defieducationfund.org
Podcasts

Podcasts

In this episode, we’re speaking with Amanda Tuminelli, Chief Legal Officer at DeFi Education Fund, about the latest in crypto policy and what she’s expecting to see leading up to the election next week. We start out by recapping some of the lawsuits Amanda has helped file against the SEC through DeFi Education Fund and her testimony at the first congressional hearing on DeFi last month, and then we talk about what’s on her radar right now in terms of what the SEC is doing and how she expects the election to impact the state of crypto moving forward. Amanda was nominated by Andy Boyan and voted onto the podcast by Nicole D’Avis, Andy Boyan, Defi Beats, Disruption Joe, Meg Lister, and Irina Marinescu.

Real Vision: The State of DeFi: A Deep Dive

October 2024

It may not be “DeFi Summer” just yet, but the reports of DeFi’s death have been greatly exaggerated. In fact, decentralized finance hit the main stage in U.S. Congress a few weeks ago when House Financial Services Committee’s digital assets-focused subcommittee held a hearing on the subject. One of the people representing the industry at that hearing was Amanda Tuminelli, chief legal officer at DeFi Education Fund. She and the fund’s CEO, Miller Whitehouse-Levine, join Ash Bennington alongside Mona El Isa, CEO of founder at Avantgarde Finance and founder of DeFi protocol Enzyme for an in-depth health check of DeFi.

In this episode of Beyond the Code, Yitzy sits down with ⁠Amanda Tuminelli⁠, Chief Legal Officer at the ⁠DeFi Education Fund⁠, to explore the critical legal battles shaping the future of decentralized finance. Amanda shares her insights on the ongoing fight for fair crypto regulation, the DeFi Education Fund’s involvement in high-profile cases like Roman Storm's Tornado Cash prosecution, and their defense of DeFi developers in groundbreaking impact litigation. They also dive into the Fund's efforts to hold regulators accountable, such as their challenge to the SEC's handling of airdrops and digital asset enforcement. Whether you're a legal professional, a DeFi enthusiast, or just curious about the intersection of law and crypto, this episode is packed with invaluable knowledge.

Congressmen Tom Emmer and Patrick McHenry sent the SEC a letter demanding clarification on how crypto airdrops are securities offerings. Amanda Tuminelli of the DeFi Education Fund breaks down why she thinks the SEC is wrong on its interpretation.

Amanda Tuminelli, chief legal officer at the DeFi Education Fund discusses the first Congress DeFi hearing.

On September 11, 2024, the world’s first-ever Congressional hearing dedicated solely to DeFi, entitled “Decoding DeFi: Breaking Down the Future of Decentralized Finance”, was called by Congressman French Hill, R-AR. Guest: Amanda Tuminelli | Chief Legal Officer of DeFi Education Fund

Amanda Tuminelli, Chief Legal Officer for the DeFI Education Fund, discusses her crypto journey and her work with the organization. The DEF is a research and advocacy group dedicated to explaining the advantages of Decentralized Finance.

On this episode of the podcast, Deana talks with Amanda Tuminelli of the DeFi Education Fund. They talk about the recent regulatory and policy news around crypto in the US, what values and principles should be present in crypto policy more generally, and how crypto has entered the political realm.

The DeFi Education Fund and co-plaintiff Beba, an apparel company based in Texas, recently filed a pre-enforcement suit challenging the SEC’s regulation by enforcement approach to crypto and their policy that free airdrops are securities transactions.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a Wells notice to Uniswap Labs, the team behind the prominent decentralized exchange (DEX) Uniswap, signaling a forthcoming enforcement action. Amanda Tuminelli, Chief Legal Officer at the DeFi Education Fund, joined Unchained to unpack what the case could mean for Uniswap and the overall decentralized finance (DeFi) industry. Amanda also talks about the DeFi Education Fund’s recent lawsuit against the SEC over its airdrop policies and the industry’s need for a proactive counteroffensive approach in dealing with the SEC.

While there is always a lot of activity on Crypto Legal Front, this particular moment in time feels especially active. Today on the show we have Jake Chervinsky and Amanda Tuminelli, two of crypto’s most impressive lawyers. Every single court case, of which there are 5 different ones discussed in this episode today, brings new precedent and new clarity to the crypto space. The theme of this episode today might be… crypto bites back.

After the DEF submitted an amicus brief in the Roman Storm matter, which involves Tornado Cash, I spoke with the two authors: Amanda Tuminelli serves as the DeFi Education Fund's chief legal officer where she leads the organization's impact litigation and policy efforts. Jake Chervinsky recently joined Variant as Chief Legal Officer, where he leads the firm's legal team, and works closely with portfolio founders to overcome the regulatory hurdles holding them back. He’s a board member for the DeFi Education Fund.

Amanda Tuminelli is the Chief Legal Officer at the DeFi Education Fund. We discuss: DeFi Education Fund’s Mission Suing the SEC over the Beba token airdrop Recent SEC vs Coinbase ruling How does the Ripple XRP case ruling impact Coinbase’s case Kraken sues the SEC – SEC Sanctioned in DebtBox case Will Crypto have to go to the Supreme Court? SEC attack on Ethereum & the ETH ETF

The James Rule Crypto Show: DeFi Education Fund - Shaping the Future of DeFi Policy

March 2024

Interview - DeFi Education Fund - Shaping the Future of DeFi Policy - SEC Lawsuit - Donate w/ Crypto

On the Brink: DeFi Education Fund & Beba sue the SEC

March 2024

Miller Whitehouse-Levine and Amanda Tuminelli of the DeFi Education Fund join the show. In this episode we discuss: Beba, an American apparel company based in Waco, TX and the DeFi Education fund have filed a complaint against the SEC, challenging the agency’s pattern of regulation via enforcement. The specific’s of Beba’s airdrop campaign. The Debt Box case and the pattern of behavior that the case highlights. The status of Congressional action on market structure, stablecoins and SAB 121. How the DeFi Education Fund prioritizes key initiatives. How to get involved in this case and support the broader mission of the organization.

In today's episode, Santi is joined by Rebecca Rettig and Miller Whitehouse to update us on the latest policy concerns impacting crypto. They cover the origins of the DeFi Education Fund and the realities of educating regulators on the novelty of DeFi. They then shift gears and discuss onchain illicit activity that exists, how to find a compromise between permissionless systems and state control, the role stablecoins like USDC play, and reactions to the SEC’s proposed dealer rule that threatens DeFi participation. Rebecca breaks down her recently published paper "Genuine DeFi as Critical Infrastructure" offering a conceptual framework for regulation that leverages DeFi’s transparency while allowing permissionless systems to thrive. Stay tuned for all of this and much more!

Bankless Podcast: The US Government is Trying to Kill Crypto

October 2023

We need to stop the US from killing crypto. The new IRS proposals could effectively destroy DeFi and other crypto use cases. The good news? We can change this. 5 minutes is all it takes to leave a comment and get the interpretation delayed. In this episode, we bring on Miller Whitehouse-Levine of the DeFi Education Fund and tax lawyer Jason Schwartz to discuss the proposed rules and their catastrophic implications.

Amanda Tuminelli of The DeFi Education Fund joins the podcast. In this episode we discuss: Amanda’s background and path to joining The DeFi Education Fund; The IRS “broker” rulemaking process and its potential impact on DeFi; The SEC’s “Exchange” rulemaking process; DEF’s amicus briefs on SEC vs. Coinbase; and Patent trolls in the DeFi ecosystem.

Amanda Tuminelli (@amandatums) is chief legal officer for the Defi Education Fund, where she leads the organization’s impact litigation and policy efforts. She was previously an attorney at Kobre & Kim and Dechert LLP, and served as a Judicial Law Clerk for the Eastern District of New York.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Government indicted Tornado Cash developers Roman Storm and Roman Semenov for three counts of conspiracy involving a staggeringly large number: $1 billion in criminal proceeds. The U.S. Department of Justice attached North Korean hackers to a large portion of this sum, alleging that Tornado’s privacy tech enabled nefarious deeds. Amanda Tuminelli, chief legal officer of the DeFi Education Fund, joins the show to assess whether the U.S. Government got it right or is merely misguided in its understanding of how blockchain technology works. Should Tornado Cash devs be held to account for the criminal use of their software?

The Pretty Good Policy for Crypto podcast welcomes Miller Whitehouse-Levine and Amanda Tuminelli of the DeFi Education Fund for a discussion of the fund's recent SEC filing and Tuminelli's experience as the fund's new Chief Legal Officer. Host Paul Briggner facilitates a conversation about Tuminelli's previous legal work, as well as her transition to working in the cryptocurrency industry. The episode sheds light on the DeFi Education Fund's goals for impact litigation and policy work, and the potential impact of their recent filing.

The Defiant Weekly Roundup: Is Crypto In The US Doomed? Regulation Expert Weighs In

June 2023

DeFi Education Fund's Amanda Tuminelli joins the show to discuss this week's SEC enforcement actions and what it means for the future of crypto in the U.S.

Joining us today are the best in the biz Chervinsky & Amanda Tuminelli who are here to answer all our questions about the SEC and it's assault on the crypto industry as a whole.

The PGP for Crypto Podcast: Miller Whitehouse-Levine, CEO of DeFi Education Fund

April 2023

Miller Whitehouse-Levine, is the CEO of the DeFi Education Fund. With an extensive background in public policy, Miller has dedicated his career to driving innovation and fostering a regulatory environment that supports the growth of the blockchain and DeFi industries. Before joining the DeFi Education Fund, Miller led the Blockchain Association's policy operation, shaping key policy initiatives in the blockchain space. Prior to that, he worked at Goldstein Policy Solutions, where he contributed to the development of a boutique lobbying firm specializing in financial services, telecommunications, and cybersecurity. Miller holds a B.S. in International Politics and a minor in Mandarin Chinese from Georgetown's School of Foreign Service. His unique blend of policy expertise and passion for decentralized finance make him a key figure in the ongoing conversation around DeFi's potential and its regulatory landscape.

Miller Whitenhouse-Levine the CEO of DeFi Education Fund, Marisa T Coppel Policy Counsel at Blockchain Association and Sarah Brennan GC of Delphi Ventures join host Tommy for the definitive episode on crypto regulations.

Sheila Warren, CEO of the Crypto Council for Innovation, and Miller Whitehouse-Levine, Policy Director of the DeFi Education Fund, offer insider takes on how lawmakers and regulators are viewing crypto after FTX’s catastrophic failure. Both expect heightened activity in the U.S. from what they’re calling the “Crypto Congress.” Will this be the year for stablecoin regulation? Is DeFi still in the crosshairs? What about Ripple’s fight with the SEC? The two crypto policy experts look to the U.S. and beyond for what regulatory battles lie ahead in 2023.

Miller Whitehouse-Levine, Policy Director at DeFi Education Fund (DEF) – a non-profit organisation that explains decentralized finance to policymakers around the world and advocates for policies welcoming of decentralized financial infrastructure – joined us for an interview to walk through the basics of DEF and the important role that Policy work plays within crypto.

On today’s “Breakdown” interview, NLW is joined by Miller Whitehouse-Levine, policy director at the DeFi Education Fund. They discuss the state of regulatory discourse in Washington, D.C., along with key recent events including Treasury Department sanctions.

Miller Whitehouse-Levine of the Defi Education Fund joins Andrew in the studio today to discuss the latest news and activity of the DEF.

ReFi DeFi: DeFi Education Fund

October 2022

It's clear that US regulators are shining a spotlight on DeFi. It's essential that we have a group that is dedicated to educating policymakers and shaping the future of DeFi. In this episode, we had the honour to speak to Miller Whitehouse-Levine, Policy Director at the DEF.

Miller Whitehouse-Levine (@millercwl) is the Policy Director at the DeFi Education Fund (@fund_defi). With oversight from the DeFi Education Fund’s grants committee, Miller has overall strategic and operational responsibility for the execution of the Education Fund’s mission and goals. Prior to joining the fund, Miller led the Blockchain Association’s policy operation and worked at Goldstein Policy Solutions on a range of public policy issues, including crypto. In this conversation, we cover all aspects of the Tornado Cash saga, how the DeFi Education Fund works, and outline the interplay between the various government and international agencies governing crypto.

BBC: Business Daily

September 2021

Regulators are taking a close look at new crypto-trading environments, known collectively as Decentralised Finance, or DeFi. advocates say the technologies underlying DeFi offer an inclusive and democratic approach to finance, while critics say it is a potential hotbed for money laundering, terrorist financing and other criminal activity. The BBC's Ed Butler dives into the world of DeFi, speaking with Laura Shin, crypto journalist and host of the Unchained podcast, to hear about DeFi, and the kinds of entrepreneurs attracted to it. We also hear from Miller Whitehouse-Levine from the DeFi Education Fund, who argues the potential benefits of DeFi, and digital forensics expert Paul Sibenik of CipherBlade explains what tools are out there for tracking criminal activity across dentralised finance platforms. And veteran crypto investor Jamie Burke of Outlier Ventures explains why he has got so much of his own portfolio in DeFi.

bottom of page