“DeFi” is short-form for decentralized finance, a method of executing financial transactions without the middlemen—brokerages, exchanges, banks, and other intermediaries. (Devine, US News). An understanding of yield farming cannot be achieved without first understanding the term DeFi. In the purest sense of the term, DeFi “must have no centralized control but run autonomously on a blockchain through the use of smart contracts.” Id. These smart contracts are “bits of code that perform actions once certain conditions have been met,” self-executing when specific outcomes occur. Id. Generally, DeFi has come to be known as the term for “any application or business that uses blockchain technology or cryptocurrency to create alternative financial products.” Id. One practice catching the attention of the SEC is yield farming, a method of lending crypto currency to which the SEC believes federal securities regulations apply. (Kharif, Bloomberg Law). . .

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