Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols will survive mounting pressure from governments and corporate entities to impose traditional financial regulations, according to Will Reeves, CEO and co-founder of Bitcoin rewards company Fold.
In an interview, Reeves said regulatory proposals requiring DeFi protocols to embed biometric identity checks within smart contracts—or other forms of TradFi-style controls—are destined to fail, much like past attempts to control the flow of information on the internet.
He warned that entrenched financial institutions are lobbying for tighter oversight to slow innovation while they prepare to enter the crypto sector over the next decade. “This is simply a chapter that will lead to an inevitable victory for these open networks. Over time, they will win, but along the way, you’re going to see regulations and things meant to delay progress,” Reeves said.
At the same time, governments and legacy players are expected to use traditional investment vehicles such as exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to pull users into permissioned custody—offering benefits like loan collateralization, but undermining the principle of financial sovereignty.
Why open-source protection matters
Reeves emphasized that protecting open-source developers from legal liability is critical to preserving permissionless protocols. Without such protection, regulators could force DeFi toward centralization, stripping away its defining features of decentralization and accessibility.
The bigger debate: DeFi vs TradFi
As financial institutions increase their footprint in crypto, privacy advocates warn that mandatory government-issued credentials or KYC requirements for DeFi would blur the lines between decentralized protocols and the very legacy financial systems they were built to replace.
Supporters argue DeFi’s core promise lies in its ability to democratize finance, offering global access to value transfer and risk management with nothing more than a smartphone and an internet connection. Overregulation, critics say, would make DeFi indistinguishable from TradFi and risk eroding the values of privacy, openness, and financial sovereignty.
