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DeFi Education Fund

@fund-defi

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DeFi Education Fund pfp
DeFi Education Fund
@fund-defi
With Roman Storm's trial starting tomorrow, DEF put together a helpful backgrounder to get everyone up to speed. "Today, the target is Tornado Cash... tomorrow it could be the developers of a VPN, an encrypted messaging app, or a peer-to-peer file sharing tool."
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DeFi Education Fund
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You can read the full blog at the link below: https://defieducationfund.org/post/us-v-storm-background-timeline
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DeFi Education Fund
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DeFi Education Fund
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10/ By submitting this amicus brief, DEF and our partners believe that declaratory relief is appropriate. Participants in the digital asset industry “are entitled to receive clarification from this court before stifling their [lawful] practices or otherwise exposing themselves to punishment.” You can read the full amicus brief at the link below: https://www.defieducationfund.org/_files/ugd/84ba66_a0475d7bbcf4436a83f68e792c554b4a.pdf
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DeFi Education Fund
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8/ Ultimately, the Government’s theory of liability generates legal uncertainty, chilling the development of LAWFUL digital asset tools, and potentially leads developers to move offshore or cease creating their tools entirely.
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DeFi Education Fund
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7/ But the Government’s theory is wrong on the law.
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6/ As we argue, “…to be subject to prosecution under § 1960 for “unlicensed money transmitting”—under any of the statute’s definitions of “money transmitting”—a person must have taken custody or control of another person’s funds. Yet, despite §1960’s “clear limits” the Government is actively prosecuting developers of noncustodial p2p software for “unlicensed money transmitting.” Look no further than the cases against the developers of Tornado Cash and Samourai Wallet.
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DeFi Education Fund
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5/ Our amicus brief makes the following arguments:
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3/ Lewellen asserts a Declaratory Judgment Act (DJA) claim, asking the court to declare that he is not operating a "money transmitting" business and that he is not a "money transmitter," a First Amendment claim "that the money-transmitting laws are unconstitutional insofar as they apply to Lewellen’s writing and publishing of non-custodial and immutable software,” and a Fifth Amendment claim that the DOJ's interpretation of the money transmitting laws violates his Due Process rights.
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DeFi Education Fund
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4/ As DEF has said through its past advocacy, prosecuting developers of noncustodial p2p software under 18 U.S.C. § 1960 for operating “unlicensed money transmitting businesses,” in legally incorrect and unfair. The DOJ pushing a radical new theory of criminal liability via criminal indictment, and in direct contravention of 2019 FinCEN Guidance, violates Due Process and fair notice principles, and makes the U.S. less competitive.
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DeFi Education Fund
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2/ First, a refresher on what this case is all about. In Jan. 2025, Michael Lewellen filed a preemptive lawsuit against the DOJ for unfairly prosecuting noncustodial software developers as operators of money transmitting businesses under 18 U.S.C. §1960, the federal criminal statute which proscribes failing to register a “money transmitting business.” The key issue contemplated in this case is whether Lewellen, in his plan to publish a DeFi protocol, engages in an unlawful activity under 18 U.S.C. §1960.
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DeFi Education Fund
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NEW: On July 7, 2025, DEF, Paradigm, Bitcoin Policy Institute, Blockchain Association, Crypto Council for Innovation, Digital Chamber of Commerce, Solana Policy Institute, and the Uniswap Foundation, filed an amicus brief in Michael Lewellen v. Pamela Bondi in support of Lewellen’s opposition to the DOJ’s motion to dismiss. Let's dive in🧵
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DeFi Education Fund
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During the SEC Crypto Task Force’s recent DeFi Roundtable, Chair Atkins made the exciting announcement that the SEC will explore a DeFi “innovation exemption.” In a new DEF blog post, DEF's Gavin Zavatone breaks down what this could mean for DeFi and highlights 3 critical principles for the exemption.
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DeFi Education Fund
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2/ “An innovation exemption for DeFi technology could protect developers, support the flourishing of DeFi onshore in the United States, and create incentives for greater transparency, and decentralization across the industry. It would also establish necessary guardrails to protect users and consumers in DeFi markets, and allow smaller innovators to bring DeFi technology to market without the fear of burdensome and incompatible regulations.” Read the full blog at the link below: https://www.defieducationfund.org/post/chair-atkins-proposed-defi-innovation-exemption
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"The passage of GENIUS out of the Senate represents a massively positive shift for DeFi regulation in the United States, particularly in that a broad, bipartisan group of lawmakers have recognized the nuanced technological realities of DeFi technology." Read the full blog 👇 https://www.defieducationfund.org/post/u-s-senate-passes-genius-act
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DeFi Education Fund
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Yesterday, the U.S. Senate passed the GENIUS Act with a bipartisan supermajority. TODAY, DEF published a blog post examining what's in the bill that just passed, what it means for DeFi, and what's next. As we write: "GENIUS is significant for DeFi in that it recognizes decentralized blockchain networks as base layer infrastructure in a dollar-backed global financial system, protects peer-to-peer transactions in stablecoins, and explicitly treats DeFi differently than centralized intermediaries..."
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DeFi Education Fund
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To read the full brief, please click the link below: https://www.defieducationfund.org/_files/ugd/84ba66_7fd6c3ef908341d9b7e335bc263e0dcb.pdf
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Simply, the keystone of decentralized finance is disintermediation—and DeFi could have tremendous societal and individual benefits with the appropriate regulatory frameworks.
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DeFi Education Fund
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As DeFi experts, we spend a majority of the submission focusing on the tech at hand. In section I, we provide an overview of the Ethereum network, getting into the details of smart contracts, what it means to be immutable, and its relation to DeFi. In section II, we get into privacy-preserving technology, including zero knowledge (“zK”) cryptography, why it is important, and why it should always be properly categorized as a neutral tool.
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DeFi Education Fund
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And, in section III, we discuss how Tornado Cash works, how users are able to create private transactions, and conclude that Tornado Cash is not a “service” nor obligated entity of any kind.
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