In a major policy change, federal prosecutors modify the way they approach decentralized finances, or DEFI.
After years of uncertainty concerning the responsibility of coders and software developers, managers now trace a clear line between the creation of technology and commits a crime.
The United States Ministry of Justice has announced that it will no longer target software developers who build Defi platforms without proof of criminal intention.
Interim assistant prosecutor Matthew Galeotti made these remarks on Thursday at a summit of digital assets in Wyoming. He said that code writing alone is not a crime.
This indicates a significant change in relation to previous application strategies where prosecutors billed developers of the transmission activities without license.
Debate on the rules for the transmission of money
Regulators have long applied strict rules to businesses in the fundraising sector, but the rise in DEFI systems puts these standards to the test.
Traditional payment platforms are faced with clear obligations, while DEFI projects say that these same rules do not make sense in an environment focused on code.
Silver issuers such as Paypal and Cash App must obtain licenses and comply with the anti-money laundering obligations. They must also check customers and report suspicious transactions.
But decentralized exchanges argue that these rules do not correspond to their model because they have no control over the activity of users on their platforms.
NEW: US Doj AAG AAG Matthew Galeotti says: “Our opinion is that writing the code, without bad intention, is not a crime. Innovating new ways for the economy to store and transmit value and create wealth, without bad intention, is not a crime “
– Degen News (@degeneratenews) August 21, 2025
On DEFI, hide money and a bad intention
The problem was subjected to spotlights after a New York jury recently condemned Roman Storm, co-founder of Tornado Cash, on accusations of conspiracy linked to the exploitation of a license-free money transmission company.
Tornado Cash is a confidentiality service specially designed to make transactions of defi and cryptocurrency more difficult to trace.
The jurors could not make the decision to know if Storm has committed money laundering or raped sanctions.
The prosecutors said that the service had enabled illegal finance, while the criticism of the case argued that Storm had only written code.
Prosecutors prioritize evidence of intention
According to Galeotti, future cases in the DEFI and Crypto space will require proof that a developer knowingly helped fraud, escape sanctions or money laundering.
“Innovating new ways for the economy to store and transmit value and create wealth, without ill-intention, is not a crime,” he said.
He added that the laws prohibiting the transmission of money without license will not apply to the promoters unless there are evidence of deliberate reprehensible acts.
The objective of the American judges will remain on fraud, Ponzi regimes and global laundering networks, including those based in China and other countries suspected of having carried out illicit transactions.
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