Dfns has been elected to the Board of Directors of ADAN (Association pour le Développement des Actifs Numériques), France’s and EU’s leading digital assets trade association. This gives infrastructure builders a new voice at the table focused on security, sovereignty and compliance.

We’re joining 10 other companies for a two-year term, representing the full range of the crypto industry: regulated custodians, decentralized platforms, payment service providers, blockchain infrastructure firms, and traditional financial institutions. It’s our first time on the board, and we’re grateful for the trust of our peers in a competitive race with 19 candidates across the ecosystem.

A new composition

ADAN is the central trade group for the crypto sector in France and is becoming a strong voice in European policymaking. Since its launch in 2020, ADAN has brought together more than 200 members, including exchanges, custodians, DeFi protocols, fintech companies, and major banks. While their business models vary, they share one mission: to make digital assets function reliably, legally, technically, and politically.

Over the past two years, ADAN has become a driving force in shaping major European initiatives such as MiCA, DORA, anti-money laundering rules, and tokenized securities pilots. It doesn’t just respond to regulation; it helps define it. At the same time, it creates common ground where crypto startups, fintechs, and banks can exchange ideas and build alignment.

On April 17, ADAN members elected 11 new board members to guide the association over the next two years. The new board combines experience from across the spectrum, with voices from regulated finance, crypto-native platforms, and technology providers all taking part:

• In: Circle, Dfns, Kriptown, Meria, Morgan Lewis, Paymium
• Staying: Coinhouse, Cube3, DLPK, KPMG France, ORWL, Société Générale - Forge
• Out: Banque Delubac & Cie, Binance France, Fireblocks, Kaiko, Nomadic Labs

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Why we ran

At Dfns, we’ve spent the last five years building a new kind of wallet infrastructure, modular, API-first, and designed for high security and compliance at scale. Our view is that custody should never block innovation. It should be flexible, invisible, and secure by default. But even the best technology needs the right environment to succeed. Product is just one piece of the puzzle. Adoption also depends on regulation, standards, and governance. Europe has a unique opportunity to lead the world in building a sound regulatory foundation for digital assets. That’s why we chose to run.

With a seat on the board, we bring a voice shaped by both blockchain fundamentals and the realities of large-scale financial operations. We’ve worked across the spectrum—from early-stage fintech startups to tier-one global banks. And we don’t just comment on frameworks like MiCA or DORA. We implement them. We build systems that make compliance work in practice. Our perspective comes from real use cases already in production: custody, payments, tokenization, and treasury management. Policy matters most when it reaches production. That’s where we believe we can play a role and make contributions.

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What’s next

We didn’t run to make headlines. We ran to get to work. Over the next two years, we’ll focus on:

• Supporting policies that help real-world crypto adoption in France and across Europe
• Advocating for realistic standards in custody, tokenization, and compliance
• Giving infrastructure builders a seat at the table, those who turn regulation into working systems
• Helping traditional finance, decentralized platforms, and regulators find common ground

We’re looking forward to working closely with our fellow board members to keep ADAN moving forward as both the voice and engine of this industry. To everyone who voted for us, thank you. To those who didn’t, we’d still love to connect. We’re here to serve the ecosystem as a whole.

If you’d like to collaborate or get involved in a working group, don’t hesitate to reach out to our CEO and newly elected board member: clarisse@dfns.co.