Washington Should Let DeFi Succeed

Regulators should prosecute fraud, but also acknowledge the limits of their effectiveness and allow DeFi to mature.

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A new form of consumer finance could upend the entire banking and finance system that’s plagued by expensive fees, limited “bankers hours,” public mistrust, bailouts and insider government favors.

But Congress and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may kill the movement – decentralized finance, or DeFi – in the name of our own protection. Regulators should prosecute fraud, but also acknowledge the limits of their effectiveness and allow DeFi to mature without the burden of governmental compliance.

People are on the verge of cutting out the middleman in finance. Just as Bitcoin decentralized money transfers, DeFi could decentralize all of finance, from lending, borrowing and exchanging to more exotic forms of interest collection.

DeFi eschews heavily regulated, fee-collecting intermediaries to allow peer-to-peer money flows. In just three years, it has grown from an idea on Meetup to a $50 billion industry. Yet DeFi’s astounding growth has also attracted opportunists looking to fleece naïve newcomers. Hackers and rug pullers – developers creating new products and then absconding with the loot – have plagued the growing industry. According to one source, fraudsters stole $83.4 million between January and April this year.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D.-Mass.) fired off a letter asking SEC Chairman Gary Gensler what more Congress could do to empower the commission to rein in DeFi. Mr. Gensler needs no persuading. He has repeatedly made requests for additional authority to bring non-security cryptocurrencies under the SEC’s ambit. Dan Berkovitz, a commissioner at the SEC’s sister agency, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), recently agreed. While praising financial intermediaries, he described DeFi as a “bad idea, and “Hobbesian,” and questioned its legality.

The message from the Biden administration and its appointees is clear: Without us, scams will proliferate and retail investors will get hosed.

Read the full article at CoinDesk.