10th April 2025 > > SEC & DeFi.

tl;dr

The new pro-crypto SEC Chair is confirmed by the Senate. DeFi as a sector, and Aave in particular, deals admirably with the recent market turmoil.

Market Snap

Market Wrap

The Trump Tariff Wars is the only game in town.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – SEC Chair Paul Atkins

Trump’s nominee for Chair of the SEC, Paul Atkins, has been confirmed by the Senate.

Paul has previously been a commissioner for the SEC during the GFC before founding a regulatory compliance and risk management consulting firm, Patomak Global Partners. I am sure his knowledge of the labyrinthine procedures at the SEC, along with a fat contacts book, was very helpful to his clients. More interestingly, from our point of view, Paul served as co-chair of the Token Alliance from 2017 to 2024, described as “… a decentralized Listing platform providing services to crypto exchanges & blockchain projects.” Paul’s pro-crypto credentials are in no doubt, to the benefit of us all.

At his confirmation hearing, Paul’s pitch included this statement:

“A top priority of my chairmanship will be to work with my fellow Commissioners and Congress to provide a firm regulatory foundation for digital assets through a rational, coherent, and principled approach.”

Hurrah! I hear you all shout.

Anti-liberty and anti-freedom campaigner, Senator Elizabeth Warren, was scathing about Paul’s prior tenure at the SEC, describing him as having “exceedingly bad judgement”, which does rather suggest that the Warren household is a mirror-free environment.

The only sour note in the whole proceedings was that the vote in favour of his nomination by 52-44 was split along party political lines. I had been hopeful that the destructive (and in some cases career ending) partisan approach to cryptos had been jettisoned in recent times, but I guess old habits die hard.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – DeFi resilience

Amidst all the recent market turmoil, some centralised TradFi exchanges had a few problems. For instance, IG still has this banner at the top of its app:

In contrast, volumes and TVL (total value locked) across all DeFi platforms increased with no reported problems, to the best of my knowledge. Aave – for which the native token AAVE is a core component of the CC Treasury – hit a record high in deposits totalling over $18bn, a near four-fold increase since the start of the year.

DeFi remains one of the cryptos world’s most exciting but also most complex areas of untapped potential. It is far too complicated and tricky for most people to navigate, with many ways of losing funds though simple errors or just plain carelessness. Or indeed, forgetfulness, if comprehensive note taking is not your forte. But it is reassuring that the sector has passed this test of resilience, proving that there are solid foundations in place. Improving user experience will be the key to greater adoption, leading to ever-growing TVL, which should flow through into the prices of tokens native to the largest platforms.