One of the leading U.S. advocates for decentralized finance (DeFi), Miller Whitehouse-Levine, is departing his job as executive director of the DeFi Education Fund, where he’ll be replaced by the group’s chief legal officer, Amanda Tuminelli.
Whitehouse-Levine, a fixture in U.S. crypto circles, will remain on the organization’s board, according to a Thursday announcement, and a person familiar with his plans said he’ll be taking a not-yet-announced role that keeps him in the industry lobbying space.
“I have made the difficult decision to leave my current role at DeFi Education Fund to pursue a new opportunity — a decision ultimately made easy knowing that Amanda’s incredibly capable leadership, passion and brilliance will lead DEF to new heights in service of the DeFi community,” he said in a Thursday statement about the transition for the group, which was established in 2021.
The DeFi corner of the digital assets sector saw a major win in recent days as Congress has been moving toward the elimination of a recent Biden administration rule from the Internal Revenue Service that would have imposed potentially ruinous compliance demands on DeFi projects.
“For the first time in DeFi’s history, there is a significant, bipartisan group of U.S. policymakers and regulators thinking proactively and constructively about sensible crypto legislation, regulatory frameworks, and the way they fit with technological innovation, and our mission at DeFi Education Fund has never been more important,” Tuminelli said in a statement.