The Ethereum Foundation announced the formation of a dedicated DeFi support team, establishing a DeFi unit within the App Relations department, to promote the development of decentralized finance protocols and reinforce its "DeFipunk" philosophy. The new team appointed former DELV CEO and MakerDAO governance architect Charles St. Louis as DeFi Protocol Specialist, Gearbox Protocol co-founder Ivan (ivangbi) as DeFi Coordinator, and Jason Chaskin to lead the overall App Relations work. The Ethereum Foundation stated that its ideal DeFi should possess characteristics such as permissionless, censorship-resistant, privacy-first, self-custodial, and open-source, emphasizing support for projects that truly align with these principles. Charles St. Louis stated that "DeFipunk" represents a core concept: DeFi should not merely be a modified version of traditional finance, but rather a financial system that can only exist on Ethereum.