DEF May Recap

Below you’ll find a recap of what the DeFi Education Fund (DEF) has been up to in May 2025. 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.

Submitting DAO Letter to SEC Crypto Task Force

On May 27, 2025, DEF and the Uniswap Foundation submitted a comment to the SEC Crypto Task Force exclusively focused on decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and decentralized governance.

DEF and UF recommends three key principles for the SEC to implement to remedy its prior treatment of DAOs: 

• The Commission should treat DAOs with decentralized control over governance of the network as nothing more than disparate and dispersed groups of people, unless facts are developed that indicate otherwise.

• The Commission should recognize that DAOs with decentralized control over the governance of the network are not an identifiable and coordinated group of “others” undertaking efforts for the purposes of the “efforts of others” prong of a Howey analysis.

• The Commission should recognize that blockchain records are a uniquely transparent and immutable resource that eliminate informational asymmetries.

Read our full letter at the link below and consider responding to us with your own feedback, which we will take into account for future submissions to the Task Force. 

Link to submission.

Tracking Market Structure Legislation

On May 5, 2025, the House Financial Services Committee (HFSC) and House Agriculture Committee released draft legislation for digital asset market structure. The discussion draft legislation – introduced by House Ag Chairman G.T. Thompson (R-PA), HFSC Chairman French Hill (R-AR), Digital Assets Subcommittee Chair Bryan Steil (R-WI), and House Ag Digital Assets Subcommittee Chair Dusty Johnson (R-SD) – aims to establish a regulatory framework for digital assets in the United States, including by defining key terms related to digital assets and blockchain, clarifying the application of securities and commodities laws to “digital commodity” transactions, establishing rules for intermediaries, and carving out certain DeFi activities from registration requirements.

Following the release of the discussion draft, the DEF team published an analysis, focusing on nuances in the draft text that could directly impact decentralized finance (DeFi), decentralization, and/or self-custodial technology.

The discussion draft was followed by the formal introduction of the bill, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, on May 29, 2025.

The DEF team is focused on ensuring DeFi technology and market participants are accurately described, properly classified, and appropriately represented in market structure legislation. 

Championing Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act

On Wednesday, May 21, 2025, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) re-introduced the bipartisan Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA) to the 119th Congress with co-sponsor Representative Ritchie Torres (D-NY).

The DeFi Education Fund applauds Majority Whip Emmer and Representative Torres for their leadership in protecting blockchain development in the United States, delivering much-needed clarity to the builders of our financial future. The passage of this legislation would also help to manifest Congress’s intent to protect developers of noncustodial protocols from unreasonable prosecution for registration violations, such as prosecutions under Section 1960.

For DEF’s one-page summary of the BRCA, click here. For background on the history and design of the BSA, its application to crypto, and why software providers and noncustodial operators across the technology stack are not subject to the BSA read DEF’s article written by Lizandro Pieper and Gavin Zavatone: “Square Peg in a Round Hole: Why the Bank Secrecy Act Should Not Apply to Blockchain Participants."

Continuing Efforts to Push Forward the GENIUS Act

On Monday, May 19, 2025, the Senate successfully invoked cloture, a procedural motion to advance legislation, on the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, with almost all Senate Republicans and 16 democrats voting in favor 66-32. Following the advancement, on May 21, the Senate voted on a second procedural motion, picking up three more Senators in favor of the motion 69-31.

After the vote, DEF’s Executive Director and Chief Legal Officer, Amanda Tuminelli said: “The DeFi Education Fund is thrilled that a bipartisan group of Senators joined forces to recognize the critical importance of providing clarity for stablecoin issuers. With 66 Senators joining together to invoke cloture, we are one step closer to creating a more welcoming environment for digital assets in the United States. The DeFi Education Fund looks forward to the Senate passing this law out of the chamber and encourages all Senators to continue to support the legislation.”

Defining DeFi: May Content and Appearances by DEF

Analyzing Market Structure Discussion Draft

On May 5, 2025, the House Financial Services Committee (HFSC) and House Agriculture Committee (House Ag) released draft legislation establishing a digital asset market structure.

Following the release of the discussion draft, DEF published a blog providing background on the bill,while specifically focusing on how the bill could impact DeFi, decentralization, and/or self-custodial technology.

To read the full blog post, click here.

Crafting a Response to Senators Elizabeth Warren and Jack Reed

On May 29, 2025, DEFs research director Laz Pieper published a blog post unpacking how some U.S. Senators are misframing the ByBit hack. The post is in response to Senators Elizabeth Warren and Jack Reed’s letter to Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent and Attorney General Pamela Bondi about North Korea’s theft and money laundering efforts. Rather than properly framing the incident as a social engineering exploit, the letter misrepresents this attack as a flaw internal to ByBit’s cybersecurity and as an overall critique of crypto.

To read the full blog post, click here.

May Financial Disclosures

You can find a detailed look into DEF’s May 2025 financials in the breakdown below. If you would like a deeper look at our 2025 financial breakdowns, please click here. 

Donations Received
Lobbyists	$55,000
Public Relations
Policy Litigation	$158,643
Marketing
Merchandise
Operating Expense	$14,037
Payroll and Associated Taxes	$164,340
Professional Fees
Accounting	$15,735
Legal	$855
Other Consultants	$4,500
Transacting Fees	$803
Insurance	$1,953
Tax & Licenses
Other Overhead	$19,962

May Media

Print/Online

• Cointelegraph: Crypto lobby group says SEC should back off regulating most DAOs

  • Crypto lobby group the DeFi Education Fund and the Uniswap Foundation have said the Securities and Exchange Commission should be hands-off on regulating decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).

The May 27 letter to SEC Crypto Task Force lead Hester Peirce argued that the agency should not treat DAOs under the purview of the securities-defining Howey test if they’re “sufficiently decentralized,” as they are not identifiable and are not a coordinated group.

• Forbes: Digital Freedom Declaration Presses EU For Clear Rules On Privacy Tech

  • Backed by more than two dozen organisations and experts, including the European Blockchain Association, Blockchain for Europe, the European Crypto Initiative, and, from the U.S. side, the DeFi Education Fund and the Blockchain Association, the declaration argues that PETs are indispensable to Europe’s digital sovereignty.

• The Block: Senate votes to move forward on landmark stablecoin legislation

  • Amanda Tuminelli, executive Director and chief legal officer of the DeFi Education Fund, said Monday's vote to move the bill forward was significant. 

"Today’s vote is an important signal of progress toward creating clear rules for stablecoins in the United States," Tuminelli said in a statement.

• Decrypt: Tornado Cash Developer Roman Storm Will Stand Trial, DOJ Says

  • “Those building neutral, noncustodial technologies should not be held to unreasonable criminal standards based on unsupportable interpretations of the law,” Amanda Tuminelli, executive director and chief legal officer of DeFi Education Fund, told Decrypt.

Blogs/Articles/Papers

• A Letter in Response to Senators Warren and Reed

• DEF and Uniswap Foundation Submit Comments to the SEC Crypto Task Force on DAOs

• House Committees Release Draft Digital Asset Market Structure Legislation

For up-to-date information about what’s happening in D.C., and on what the DeFi Education Team is up to, please follow us on X @fund_defi and subscribe to our weekly newsletter “The DeFi Debrief” on Substack.