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DEF’s May Recap

Here’s what the DeFi Education Fund (DEF) has been up to in May 2024. If you have any questions or would like to learn more about a specific activity, please do not hesitate to reach out at contact@defieducationfund.org.


Calling on Congress to Protect “the Henhouse”

In mid-May, right before the House of Representatives’ vote on FIT 21, DEF’s CEO, Miller Whitehouse-Levine, penned an op-ed in Blockworks calling on Congress to step up and “reassert their prerogative rather than ceding that power to crypto’s most fervent detractors.”


The op-ed highlights how the SEC has ramped up “up an all-out war against the crypto industry, accelerating enforcement actions and saber-rattling,” while acknowledging Congress’s slow pace to take up legislation to regulate this new industry. 


As Miller calls out the “slow and steady legislative pace gives Chair Gensler the chance to be the fox in the crypto henhouse while our lawmakers are occupied with other jobs on the farm.”


Be sure to read the full op-ed at the link


Consensus Policy Bootcamp

On May 29, DEF, alongside partners at Polygon Labs, the Solana Foundation and the Wormhole Foundation, hosted an additional crypto policy bootcamp in Austin, Texas on the sidelines of CoinDesk’s Consensus Conference. 


The bootcamp in Austin, follow prior bootcamps in Paris, London, New York City and Washington, DC, but with an important twist: the bootcamp came the week after the the historic bipartisan vote in the House of Representatives on the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act  


Policy debates are happening all around the world, with new laws being introduced continuously. The bootcamps are an important resource to ensure that developers and entrepreneurs understand the implications of policies being put forth in their jurisdictions as well as to provide them with the tools to advocate for themselves. 


Please stay tuned for when the next bootcamps are announced. 


Launching a Line of “DeFi People” Merchandise

On May 24th, we were excited to launch a line of “DeFi People” merchandise. 


Why the “DeFi People”?


We decided to lean into the words of praise from the judge in the SEC v. Coinbase oral argument, who referred to our amicus brief as the brief from “the DeFi People.”


As the only organization exclusively focused on DeFi, DEF advocates for the interests of users and developers in the ecosystem, and we depend on your contributions to make that work possible.


Through the purchase of official “DeFi People” merch, the community is  helping support our work as all proceeds go directly to DEF.


If you are interested in purchasing some merchandise, check out our store. Crypto payment options are also available. 


May Financial Disclosures


Starting in May 2024, we will be more detailed in our financial disclosures. You can find the May 2024 breakdown below. If you would like to look at our 2024 financial breakdowns, please click here


Donations Received 

$4,973,000 

Grants


Lobbyists 

$40,000 

Public Relations

$7,500 

Policy Litigation


Marketing

$295

Merchandise

$378

Operating Expense

$14,204 

Payroll and Associated Taxes

$90,803 

Professional Fees

$125 

Accounting

$6,150 

Legal

$7,165 

Other Consultants

$4,000 

Transacting Fees

$2,881 

Insurance 

$4,647 

Tax & Licenses

$25 


Other Overhead

$12,727 

May Media


Op-Eds & Journals


Print/Online


"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.

 

  • CoinDesk: The Hard Truths and Worrying Consequences of the Tornado Cash Verdict

  •  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.”

 

  • Blockworks: Crypto market structure bill advances to Senate, Rep. Nickel is optimistic

  •  “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.”

 


“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.”


For up-to-date information about what’s happening in D.C. and what we are up to, please follow us on Twitter @fund_defi and subscribe to our Substack.


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