Major stakeholders within the Ethereum community have collectively established the Ethereum Protocol Advocacy Alliance (EPAA), an initiative aimed at coordinating policy efforts and promoting understanding of the Ethereum ecosystem among lawmakers. Announced this week, the alliance underscores concerns over the disproportionate influence that centralized entities in the crypto sector have historically held in shaping regulatory frameworks.
The alliance emphasizes the need to address the imbalance that often leaves the foundational principles of on-chain infrastructure misunderstood or undervalued in legislative discussions. The EPAA’s membership includes leading organizations in decentralized finance, such as Aave Labs, Aragon, Curve, the Lido Labs Foundation, the Spark Foundation, The Graph Foundation, and the Uniswap Foundation. Collectively, these entities manage assets valued at over $100 billion through open, non-custodial protocols that operate without intermediaries, reflecting a commitment to technical robustness and pragmatic policy engagement.
Supporting this initiative, the Ethereum Foundation has expressed backing, highlighting that community-led advocacy efforts are crucial for fostering informed policymaking. The alliance plans to engage with policymakers through four primary strategies: providing technical expertise, developing accessible educational resources, coordinating strategic outreach to amplify messaging, and pinpointing common technical interests to foster collaboration.
This coordinated effort follows the example of broader crypto lobbying activities, such as the formation of Fairshake — a political action committee representing the interests of leading venture capital firms, exchanges, and projects — which successfully amassed significant funding to influence policy decisions. With the substantial resources of its founding members, the EPAA appears positioned to effectively contribute to the evolving policy landscape surrounding Ethereum and the wider decentralized finance sector.
Recent developments within the Ethereum ecosystem reflect this growth and renewed focus on community engagement, including a revamp of the Ethereum Foundation’s grants program and the launch of a dedicated platform to onboard institutional participants. These initiatives highlight the ongoing efforts to strengthen Ethereum ’s infrastructure and institutional presence amid expanding adoption and regulatory engagement.
