Welcome back to the breakdown, an everyday analysis breaking down the most important stories in Bitcoin, crypto, and beyond, with your host, NLW.

The breakdown is distributed by CoinDesk.

Welcome back to The Breakdown.

It is Thursday, December 19th.

And today we're going to be talking about some updates or potential updates in the accredited

investor definitions in the US.

Second, we're going to talk about a couple bits of news out of the decentralized finance

world that all relate in some way to

putting the decentralization in decentralized finance. Third, finally, we're going to look at

CoinDesk's most influential list. I'm going to tell you what I like, what I disagree with a little,

what I disagree with a lot, and my favorite selection. But for now, let's dive into accredited

investor rules. So an accredited investor is someone who has, who meets a certain wealth threshold.

This is a designation in the U.S. that was created in order to protect investors.

At least that's the theory behind it, right?

The SEC's chief job is investor protections.

And so accredited investor rules, which basically say that unless you've been making a couple

hundred thousand dollars a year or more for the past few years, or you meet a certain

threshold of net worth, something like a million or maybe it's $5 million, I can't actually

remember the exact number, not including your house, not including your main residence,

you're not allowed to participate in certain types of private market offerings, private market

fundraising or securities offerings, such as venture capital, venture capital for new technology

startups. And again, the goal is to protect investors from scams. The problem for a lot of people

...