‘Solana Policy Institute’ nets CEOs of Blockchain Association, DeFi Education Fund
The non-profit’s launch and big-name hires aim to grow Solana’s footprint in Washington
Blockchain Association CEO Kristin Smith | DAS 2025 New York by Mike Lawrence for Blockworks
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Miller Whitehouse-Levine, former CEO of the DeFi Education Fund, yesterday announced his latest venture as founder and CEO of the Solana Policy Institute.
Then, this afternoon, Blockchain Association CEO Kristin Smith said she would become the fledgling non-profit’s first president in May.
The non-profit’s launch and big-name hires in the crypto policy space will grow Solana’s small-ish footprint in Washington DC. The new Institute joins Solana infrastructure venue Jito and venture capital firm Multicoin as the most public Solana organizations doing business in Washington.
Smith started as CEO of the Blockchain Association — perhaps DC’s most well-known crypto policy organization — in 2018, according to her LinkedIn page. Whitehouse-Levine got his start in crypto policy working under Smith at the Blockchain Association.
“This isn’t goodbye to the industry I love – just a shift in perspective,” Smith said in an X post announcing her departure and new role.
After working at the Blockchain Association, Whitehouse-Levine served as CEO of the DeFi Education Fund from 2021, until a couple weeks ago, when he stepped down to launch the Solana Policy Institute. Whitehouse-Levine only began working on the Institute in mid-January, he told me in an interview.
Whitehouse-Levine said market structure legislation — which the Republican-led House of Representatives is currently working on proposing — is “critically important” for the crypto industry. He balked at listing Solana-specific policies for 2025.
“Our objective is not to establish some regulatory capture or tech-specific policies,” Whitehouse-Levine said.
Still, not everyone looked favorably upon the Solana ecosystem’s foray into the decidedly-not-cypherpunk realm of US federal policy.
“L1s trying to influence politics is the exact opposite kind of energy that brought me and so many others into crypto,” David Hoffman, co-host of the popular Ethereum-leaning podcast Bankless, wrote on X.
But for better or worse, having boots on the ground in DC may be table stakes for blockchains in these heady days for the US crypto industry. Congress has its Bitcoin bulls. Ripple built up its DC infrastructure through years of regulatory battles.
After a year of dramatic usage and developer growth, Solana is entering the political fray.
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