When does a sanction become a seizure? Lessons from the KindHearts case
Why Americans with funds locked in Tornado Cash smart contracts may have constitutional grounds to challenge in court.
While researching case law for our Tornado Cash challenge I came across a very interesting holding, KindHearts v. Geithner, that deals with the intersection of the Office of Foreign Assets...
The CANSEE Act is a messy, arbitrary, and unconstitutional approach to DeFi
It is effectively a ban on decentralized software development that cedes an innovative sector to the rest of the world
Yesterday Senators Reed, Rounds, Warner, and Romney introduced the Crypto-Asset National Security Enhancement (CANSEE) Act in the Senate. This bill comes as a surprise as it was apparently developed without...
How Congress should (and should not) approach DeFi
Prior restraint on merely publishing code is never the answer
Given that Congress is now considering cryptocurrency market structure legislation, we felt it was important to reiterate the distinction between activities by market actors that may be appropriately regulated, and...
The report misunderstands self custody, smart contracts, and other key elements relevant to AML policy
Yesterday the Treasury Department released a “DeFi Illicit Finance Risk Assessment.” While the report does not announce any new or changed policy, and correctly acknowledges the much larger illicit finance...
An overbroad attempt to ban crypto using these new powers would be open to a court challenge, but the law has worryingly narrow avenues for review
The RESTRICT Act, introduced by Senators Warner and Thune, aims to block or disrupt transactions and financial holdings involving foreign adversaries that pose risks to national security. Although the primary...
A Snapshot of the Current Questions and Unsettled Policy Related to Cryptocurrency Taxation
Tax issues range from general questions about how digital assets should be taxed to technical issues dealing with accounting practices and reporting obligations. Novel technological aspects of digital assets that...
Nothing about the bill would prevent the next FTX. In fact, it puts users at more risk.
The bipartisan Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act, introduced today by Sens. Warren and Marshall, is the most direct attack on the personal freedom and privacy of cryptocurrency users and developers...
Tornado Cash is no “golem.” It’s a tool for privacy and free speech.
A rebuttal of a recent article in Lawfare by Henry Farrell and Bruce Schneier
In a recent article in Lawfare, Henry Farrell and Bruce Schneier defend sanctions imposed on Tornado Cash, a privacy tool on the Ethereum network. They argue that these sanctions are...
Coin Center is suing OFAC over its Tornado Cash sanction
OFAC does not have the authority to sanction a smart contract and Americans have a right to use privacy tools
Privacy is not the default on Ethereum. If you do your job on Ethereum, your co-workers can see your salary. If you donate to a political cause on Ethereum, the...
Does the Merge change how Ethereum is regulated? (No.)
The Ethereum Merge is resurfacing questions about regulatory differences between proof-of-stake and and proof-of-work. As we've said many times, we do not believe that the technological differences between POS and...