Senate Bill Risks Innovation and Free Speech with Stablecoin Ban

While aiming to regulate stablecoins like Terra, the Lummis-Gillibrand bill potentially stifles innovation and breaches First Amendment rights by banning all algorithmic models.

Sens. Cynthia Lummis and Kirsten Gillibrand this week introduced a bill to create a regulatory framework for stablecoins, which is a laudable endeavor. Unfortunately that bill also includes a complete...

Coin Center files court brief in defense of Tornado Cash developer

The publication of Tornado Cash code is clearly protected by the Constitution

Today Coin Center filed an amicus brief in Roman Storm’s ongoing criminal case in the Southern District of New York. In this brief, we help the court cut through the...

Amicus Curiae In Support of Roman Storm’s Motion to Dismiss

A direct download of this brief is available here. 

Make Public Policy Cypherpunk Again @ EthDenver 2024

Comments to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network on “Proposal of Special Measure Regarding Convertible Virtual Currency Mixing, as a Class of Transactions of Primary Money Laundering Concern”

A direct download of this comment is available here. To whom it may concern: Coin Center is an independent nonprofit research and advocacy center focused on the public policy issues...

Comments to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on “Defining Larger Participants of a Market for General-Use Digital Consumer Payment Applications”

A direct download of this comment is available here. To whom it may concern: Coin Center is an independent nonprofit research and advocacy center focused on the public policy issues...

In an effort to close perceived loopholes, Treasury recommends massive expansion of warrantless surveillance and power to sanction open-source software

While portions of the proposal may be workable, much will depend on how legislation is ultimately drafted

This week, the U.S. Department of the Treasury sent a letter to the heads of the Senate Banking and House Financial Services Committees following a briefing on how Hamas and...

It’s time to have the conversation: Is the Bank Secrecy Act unconstitutional?

Beyond the speech and privacy issues, the BSA is a sweeping delegation of law making power

Today we’re publishing another report on the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) entitled “Broad, Ambiguous, or Delegated: Constitutional Infirmities of the Bank Secrecy Act.” In our 2019 report, “Electronic Cash, Decentralized...

Broad, Ambiguous, or Delegated: Constitutional Infirmities of the Bank Secrecy Act

The Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) allows the Secretary of the Treasury to demand transaction surveillance and reports of personal information from a category of entities defined as “financial institutions.” Originally...

There’s a centuries-old standard that tells us when regulation of crypto is justified

We explain in a comment letter on the IRS’s proposed broker rules, but the standard applies well beyond

Today Coin Center submitted a comment letter in the Treasury Department’s ongoing rulemaking on the definition of “broker” for third-party tax reporting purposes. In brief, we argue that the definition...