The pressure from U.S. regulators is taking shape along two axes: prediction markets and DeFi infrastructure. On one hand, they are directly pressuring prediction platforms under the guise of investor protection and preventing insider trading. On the other, a regulatory framework is being built that aims to hold stablecoin issuers and open-source developers to traditional financial standards of accountability.

For starters, the prediction market Kalshi has introduced employer information disclosure regulations to prevent insider trading amid pressure from the White House and Congress. At the same time, it has been reported to state regulators over non-cooperation regarding influencer advertising review policies. This demonstrates the rapidly rising compliance costs that prediction markets must bear in the process of entering the institutional mainstream.

A more intense battlefront is forming in the DeFi infrastructure layer. Paradigm and the Hyperliquid Policy Center (HPC) have voiced opposition to the U.S. Treasury Department's proposed amendments to AML (Anti-Money Laundering) regulations. They argue that provisions imposing strict liabilities on issuers for stablecoins (such as USDC and USDT) circulating in secondary markets will shrink the DeFi ecosystem and push users toward underground alternative platforms.

In parallel, the industry is strongly calling for the passage of the CLARITY Act in the Senate. The core objective is to defend the 'developer protection clause,' which prevents open-source developers from being classified as financial intermediaries and subject to regulation. If regulations that impose financial compliance obligations on coders at the development stage become reality, the autonomy and decentralized mechanisms of DeFi will suffer a fatal blow.

Ultimately, regulators are moving beyond cracking down on individual actors to adopting a direction that aims to 'control the protocol infrastructure itself.' Depending on the results of the industry's lobbying and legislative defensive efforts, the design direction and liquidity environment of DeFi protocols could change fundamentally, so we must monitor the situation closely.