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Analysis: What is and what is not a sanctionable entity in the Tornado Cash case

By treating autonomous code as a “person” OFAC exceeds its statutory authority.

Last Monday, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) made a designation adding Tornado Cash to the Specially Designated Nationals And Blocked Persons (SDN) List that it administers....

Briefing on OFAC Tornado Cash SDN listing at Zcon3

Peter Van Valkenburgh gave an impromptu briefing on the Tornado Cash sanction

U.S. Treasury sanction of privacy tools places sweeping restrictions on all Americans

Sanctioned Tornado Cash smart contract is a tool, not a person.

Tornado.cash—the website and associated Ethereum addresses—has been added to the OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) SDN list (the list of Specially Designated Nationals with whom Americans and American businesses...

Comments to the Department of Treasury Regarding Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets

This comment describes concretely why digital assets, and cryptocurrencies in particular, are essential to the operation of decentralized systems, and what the actual benefits of decentralization and disintermediation are for...

A new Senate bill focuses on cryptocurrency exchanges. Here’s what developers and users should keep an eye on.

The Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act is promising with room for improvement

Today Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Stabenow, Ranking Member Boozman, Senator Booker, and Senator Thune introduced the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act of 2022. It seeks to regulate cryptocurrency exchanges as...

Congress takes a step toward a de minimis capital gains exemption for everyday cryptocurrency transactions

The Cryptocurrency Tax Fairness Act has been introduced in the Senate

The Virtual Currency Tax Fairness Act of 2022 was introduced with bipartisan sponsors in the Senate today. This is a companion to a bill with the same name that has...

Coin Center has filed a court challenge against the Treasury Dept. over unconstitutional financial surveillance

It is a clear overreach for the government to force citizens to spy on each other without a warrant

Today Coin Center filed suit in federal district court against the Treasury Department in a facial constitutional challenge to the amendment of Section 6050I of the Tax Code that was...

A new SEC proposal has a serious change hidden within its complex language.

Coin Center files a comment explaining why it is unconstitutional.

Today Coin Center filed a comment letter with the Securities and Exchange Commission on its proposed rulemaking regarding the definition of ‘exchange’ and Alternative Trading Systems. Bottom line: The Commission's...

Comments to the Securities Exchange Commission on Amendments Regarding the Definition of ‘Exchange’ and Alternative Trading Systems

A SEC proposal has a serious change hidden within its complex language. Our comment explains why it is unconstitutional.

A direct download of this comment is available here.  

New crypto sanctions bill targets publishing code, facilitating transactions

Bill would place sweeping restrictions on persons who build, operate, and use cryptocurrency networks even if they have no knowledge or intent to help evade sanctions though the Administration’s own experts have repeatedly said cryptocurrency evasion is not serious

Senator Warren and a raft of Democratic co-sponsors today introduced a bill [PDF] titled the Digital Asset Sanctions Compliance Enhancement Act, which would place sweeping restrictions on the cryptocurrency ecosystem...