What Happened? Seven of Ethereum’s leading decentralized protocols — Aave Labs, Aragon, Curve, Lido Labs Foundation, Spark Foundation, The Graph Foundation, and the Uniswap Foundation — have joined forces to form the Ethereum Protocol Advocacy Alliance (EPAA).
What is the objective of the Ethereum Protocol Advocacy Alliance? The alliance aims to coordinate global advocacy for the decentralized infrastructure that secures more than $100 billion in onchain assets.
The alliance represents a collective effort to ensure policymakers understand how Ethereum’s open infrastructure operates — and why it must remain neutral, permissionless, and secure.
As regulators worldwide grapple with defining frameworks for decentralized systems, the founding members believe the builders of these protocols must have a stronger voice in shaping policy outcomes.
Decentralization at a Crossroads
Public interest in digital assets continues to rise. According to the Crypto Survey 2025 by Strategy & PwC, retail investors now allocate 5%–20% of their portfolios to crypto. In the U.S., polling by the DeFi Education Fund and Ipsos found that 56% of Americans want full control over their money, and over 50% believe people should be able to transfer it digitally without intermediaries. Moreover, 42% say they would engage with decentralized finance if there were clear legislative guidance.
Yet, despite the growing demand for open systems, policy debates remain dominated by centralized players. Over the past decade, Ethereum-based protocols have created robust, globally accessible financial infrastructure. Still, the regulatory narrative often overlooks the technical realities of these decentralized systems.
“We’ve seen firsthand the technical and practical complexity involved in building onchain systems,” said Anthony Leutenegger, CEO of Aragon. “Bringing together the most credible protocol teams will help ensure regulatory outcomes are workable for the builders moving this space forward.”
Building a Voice for the Builders
The EPAA marks a pivotal step in establishing direct engagement between policymakers and those creating decentralized technology. The founding members argue that without a nuanced understanding of protocol design, regulation risks undermining innovation and user safety alike.
“Decentralization is the foundation of Ethereum’s credibility and resilience,” said Sam Kim, Chief Legal Officer at Lido Labs Foundation. “Through the EPAA, we’re ensuring that policy recognizes and protects this principle.”
Brian Nistler, General Counsel at the Uniswap Foundation, noted: “The Uniswap ecosystem has faced undue regulatory scrutiny in the past.”
According to Brian, builders need a seat at the table when policy for decentralized financial systems is being shaped.
Four Pillars of the Advocacy Alliance
The alliance will advance its mission through four key priorities:
- Protecting the neutrality of the protocol layer, ensuring that regulation does not interfere with open-source code or its development.
- Promoting onchain transparency as a real-time, verifiable source of compliance and accountability.
- Preserving flexibility for innovation by avoiding overbroad or rigid regulatory standards.
- Defending permissionless access to decentralized infrastructure worldwide.
These goals exhibits a broader principle: policy should reflect how decentralized systems actually function, not how they’re perceived by traditional institutions.
Coalition and Collaboration
The EPAA plans to collaborate with organizations such as the DeFi Education Fund, the Decentralization Research Center, and the European Crypto Initiative. These alliances aim to complement existing efforts with technical input and pragmatic expertise from those directly maintaining onchain systems.
“At the Decentralization Research Center, we see the EPAA as a vital step toward ensuring that those who build decentralized systems also help shape the rules that govern them,” Connor Spelliscy, the center’s Executive Director, said in a press statement shared with AlexaBlockchain.
By pooling resources and influence, the EPAA hopes to bring clarity and technical grounding to global crypto policy debates — from Europe’s MiCA framework to emerging DeFi rules in the U.S. and Asia. Its formation signals a maturing stage in DeFi governance: one where open protocols are no longer content to be subjects of regulation, but active participants in defining it.
As Ethereum and its ecosystem underpin an expanding share of the world’s financial infrastructure, the Alliance’s work may prove decisive in determining whether the next decade of blockchain innovation remains as open and decentralized as the last.
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