Coin Center’s Top Policy Priorities for 2026

Stop unjust prosecutions of non-custodial software developers

The Department of Justice is targeting software developers with unlicensed money transmission prosecutions even though the relevant federal regulator, FinCEN, has been clear for years that non-custodial developers do not need a license.

Solution: The Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA) codifies FinCEN’s longstanding guidance that non-custodial developers do not need to register. Congress must either pass the BRCA, or include its passage with market structure legislation.

Impact Litigation: We support Lewellyn v. Garland in the Fifth Circuit. Michael Lewellyn simply wants to publish a non-custodial crowdfunding protocol and seeks clarity that he will not face felony criminal liability for doing so.

Protect Americans holding their own crypto

Many Americans hold their own crypto without the use of an intermediary, which is good for their personal autonomy and privacy. Some existing authorities could allow regulators to ban non-intermediated transactions or subject individuals making their own transactions to surveillance obligations.

Solution: The Keep Your Coins Act (KYCA) would forbid the federal government from banning or regulating self-custody. Congress must either pass the KYCA, or include its passage with market structure legislation.

Update the tax code to protect against administrative burdens on users

The current tax code has the potential to impose administrative burdens so severe that everyday participation in crypto networks becomes impractical for Americans. Six legislative updates to the tax code would allow for participation in crypto networks without creating a compliance nightmare for users.

Solution: First, create a de minimis exemption from taxation for certain small-value crypto transactions. Second, forgo the “wash sale” rule for crypto transactions. Third, give individual crypto users the ability to elect a simplified mark-to-market method, in which they would only need to report the total fair market value of each crypto asset they hold at the end of the year and pay tax on the net change. Fourth, treat block rewards from mining or validating as created-property, where it may only be taxed upon its sale or exchange. Fifth, repeal 6050I reporting of otherwise non-public information about senders in a peer-to-peer crypto transaction above $10,000. Sixth, define certain crypto assets as “readily valued property” that do not require a qualified appraisal for charitable donations.

Clarify securities and commodities law

Token issuance and secondary sales are subject to confusing and overlapping regulatory authority from the SEC and CFTC. Tokens powered by open source software and open consensus mechanisms are not securities and should not be regulated as such. The division between securities and commodities regulation and the crypto assets space should be clarified and codified so it cannot be changed by regulatory fiat.

Solution: Congress should pass a comprehensive reform addressing these questions in market structure legislation.

Encourage privacy-preserving alternatives to traditional KYC/AML

We want to move AML (anti-money laundering) policies at regulated financial institutions away from mass surveillance and toward novel tools that can do better: privacy-preserving compliance technologies that prove what needs to be proven without forcing people to hand over their full identity every time they transact. That means using user-held digital credentials, zero-knowledge proofs, and risk-based signals to show things like “not sanctioned” or “low risk,” without creating giant databases of personal data. We’ll push this forward by launching the John Hancock Project to develop open, practical standards for these tools, and by targeted advocacy with Treasury, the SEC, and Congress to get them recognized in law and regulation, paired with safe harbors and developer protections. The goal is better AML outcomes with less harm to privacy, innovation, and individual freedom.