Description

The stellar rise of bitcoin in recent months has gathered many headlines. In the background, however, an equally intriguing phenomenon has steadily been gathering pace: Decentralized Finance (DeFi).

DeFi’s total-value-locked exploded from less than 1 billion to over 29 billion US$ in one year. According to proponents, DeFi can bring increased competition, lower transaction costs and ‘DIY’ composable financial business models.

For regulators, however, DeFi poses particular headaches. DeFi projects are significantly more decentralized than many crypto-projects we have seen so far. This makes it even harder to impose traditional models of governance, liability and disclosure regimes on the rising DeFi industry. Nevertheless, the EU’s proposed Markets in Crypto-Asset Regulation does exactly that – as does the proposed US Stable Act. While both proposals mainly target Libra and its successors, they inadvertently may outlaw DeFi as well. This seminar discusses DeFi’s promises and concerns and sketches potential regulatory approaches.

About Speaker

Dr Ann Sofie Cloots is a Fixed-Term Lecturer in Corporate Law at the University of Cambridge. She completed her PhD at the University of Cambridge. She has professional experience as an associate at law firms Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP as well as Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in Brussels. Previously, she had obtained a master in law from KULeuven (Belgium) and an LLM from Colombia Law School. She was an exchange student at NYU and Harvard, and visited Wharton’s Legal Studies & Business Ethics department. Her research covers company law and the legal theory of the company, law & economics, game theory, behavioural studies and risk management, as well as digital assets, blockchain and smart contracts. She has won various prestigious awards, her most recent achievement being the winner of the Cambridge-Mckinsey Risk Prize in 2018.