Welcome to Crypto Long & Short, our institutional newsletter. This week, we focus on the need to safeguard the creators of DeFi infrastructure.
Jennifer Rosenthal, chief communications officer at the DeFi Education Fund, highlights the growing recognition of DeFi's potential among traditional finance companies and the importance of protecting the people building it. She notes that software developer protections have become a topic of discussion in crypto policy conversations, with a majority of industry participants agreeing that protecting DeFi builders is crucial.
For instance, the Promoting Innovation in Blockchain Development Act of 2026 aims to protect software developers from misclassification under criminal code. Meanwhile, Alexis Sirkia, chairman and co-founder of Yellow Network, argues that Ethereum's scaling issue stems from a flawed assumption that the limitation is throughput, rather than how value moves between participants.
He suggests that state channels, which enable peer-to-peer transactions off-chain, could be a solution. The newsletter also covers recent headlines, including the impact of smart contract exploits on the market and the shift of crypto derivatives volume into regulated venues.