Decentralized finance (DeFi) hacks cost crypto investors more than $2 billion in the first six months of the year alone. That’s more than in all of 2021 — so why aren’t regulators and politicians focusing on them more? Those numbers could get a lot worse, according to crypto security firm CertiK. It predicts that losses could more than triple 2021’s numbers by the end of this year. And yet, even the fledgling attempts to build a U.S. regulatory framework for cryptocurrency have largely ignored DeFi, as has Europe’s fully agreed-upon Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) bill. There are some reasons for this, not the least of which is that regulating DeFi — where projects claim to be so decentralized there is no central management at all, just smart contracts — is a lot more difficult than normal crypto and stablecoins. But it’s also where the need is greatest, said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who focused her crypto-skepticism on decentralized finance in a December hearing by the Senate Banking Committee.
Full report : Slow Political Response Giving DeFi Hackers a Free Hand.
