Learn more about the 2025 Coin Center Annual Dinner

Letter to the California Senate Banking and Financial Services Institutions Committee

Coin Center sent this letter outlining its concerns with the amended language of California's Assembly Bill 1326 Digital Currency. 

A direct download of this letter is available here. 

Here’s an update on the new California digital currency bill.

Legislative staff are receptive to our concerns and may amend the bill, but it remains unchanged. We have also sent a letter with our concerns to the Senate banking committee.

We've been hard at work since Assembly Bill 1326 had its language replaced with new language earlier this week. As we noted in a recent blog post, this completely new...

New California digital currency bill is a step backwards

The California Legislature has released a new version of AB 1326, and it’s bad news for anyone who loves Bitcoin and blockchain technology. Here are our top concerns.

The California Legislature has released a new version of AB 1326 [PDF], and it’s bad news for anyone who loves Bitcoin and blockchain technology. In the past we expressed our support for...

What does the CFTC have to do with the Bitfinex hack?

After the Bitfinex hack, the CFTC should open a rulemaking to clearly define what constitutes "actual delivery" of cryptocurrency under the Commodities and Exchange Act.

Yesterday we explained that CFTC’s enforcement action against Bitfinex was not the proximate cause of the exchange’s hack, but some are arguing that it was the but-for cause. It’s probably...

Open blockchains could be a democratizing force for social good.

The idea of incorruptible record keeping has gears turning in the minds of the international development community. But what does that mean?

...Maybe. But at the very least the idea of incorruptible record keeping has gears turning in the minds of the international development community. Problems from corruption-proofing land title systems to...

Neither the CFTC nor multi-sig are to blame for the Bitfinex hack

There are several complex issues, both in regulation and the technology, at play.

A hacker made off with $70 Million worth of Bitcoin held by Bitfinex. Some have observed that this hack came right on the heels of a CFTC-Bitfinex settlement that may...

The DC scene got a little dose of blockchain today.

Both Jerry Brito and Peter Van Valkenburgh joined other local experts and policymakers to discuss the state of this technology.

While some markets are up to their necks in blockchain conferences, they come somewhat fewer and further in between down here in wonderful Washington, DC. We appreciate any opportunity to...

The world’s regulators are racing to develop blockchain policy.

Our friends at Ripple have put out a great blog post that highlights some of the policy movement that have seen in Singapore and the United Kingdom.

If you follow our work you will be familiar with regulatory movement here in the United States, such as New York’s BitLicense, California’s AB 1326, and the Office of the...

After eight months, an update on the Blockchain Alliance

The Blockchain Alliance was announced last October. Since then it has grown from about 20 to over 50 members, including digital currency companies, law enforcement groups, and regulatory bodies from all over the world. But what has it been up to?

Last October, Coin Center and the Chamber of Digital Commerce announced that they had teamed up with our firm, Steptoe & Johnson LLP, to create the Blockchain Alliance, a coalition...

A Florida court just dismissed a money laundering case and said that bitcoin isn’t “money.”

That result is unsurprising given the uncertainty that surrounds state regulation of businesses in this space; an area of law we've been working hard to rationalize.

There's a great passage in the Court's opinion: The Florida Legislature may choose to adopt statutes regulating virtual currency in the future. At this time. however, attempting to fit the...