Why the Gerontocracy is Right about DeFi Risk

When we started our own analyses of technology-based finance’s stability and equality implications in 2019, we were among the first to focus on disclosures, conflicts of interest, and even self-dealing.  Still, we had no idea how many sides of a trade someone could quietly be on if he or she builds out something that purports to be decentralized finance (DeFi) but is anything but.  Although regulators have yet to do much about it, their first in-depth DeFi report details a raft of risks they should quickly remedy.  Odds are that they won’t until innocent investors and bank customers lose many of their millions, but this too-many-rules-far-too-late habit is particularly dangerous when it comes to fast-moving DeFi.

M041122.pdf