The DeFi Education Foundation urges UK regulators to tighten the definition of "control" to avoid unjustly harming developers.

PANews reported on February 13th that, according to CoinDesk, the Washington-based DeFi Education Fund (DEF), in response to a consultation paper from the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regarding the regulation of crypto asset activities, stated that regulatory obligations should only apply to entities with "unilateral control" over user assets or transactions, and should not be considered intermediaries simply for developing or participating in decentralized protocols. DEF argues that "control" should be linked to specific operational permissions such as the ability to unilaterally initiate or block transactions, modify protocol parameters, or exclude users. It also warns that directly applying the prudential supervision, reporting, and platform access requirements of centralized exchanges, along with comprehensive anti-money laundering obligations, to automated, non-custodial DeFi protocols would be structurally incompatible.