Decentralized Finance (DeFi) presents promising opportunities and complex, significant risks to the U.S. financial system, consumers, and national security. Since the launch of Bitcoin, applications leveraging blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies have grown exponentially. These technologies hold out the promise of greater transparency and efficiency, expanded access to basic financial products and services, and a more resilient financial system. Yet this promise has also come with very significant risks. In the absence of effective regulation, enforcement, and compliance, many of these DeFi projects, ... (full story)