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Litigation

Coin Center regularly engages in or supports lawsuits to challenge policies that put undue regulatory burden on cryptocurrency developers and users.

Lewellen v. Garland

Plaintiff and Coin Center Fellow Michael Lewellen is suing the Department of Justice seeking declarative judgement to get clarity that persons developing and maintaining non-custodial software do not need to register as a money transmitter or face liability for unlicensed conduct.

Read more: Coin Center Fellow Michael Lewellen is suing the DOJ over their criminalization of software development

Jarrett v. U.S.

Plaintiff Josh Jarrett’s second lawsuit against the IRS. Block rewards are new cryptocurrency tokens that validators acquire when adding new blocks to a blockchain. The IRS unlawfully seeks to tax block reward tokens as “income” the moment they come into existence. Previously the IRS mooted his first case by offering him a refund without admitting that their interpretation of the tax law was wrong.

Read more: Jarrett takes IRS back to court in fight over crypto block rewards

Coin Center v. Yellen

Coin Center, along with a group of normal privacy-seeking workers, donors, activists, and public figures, filed a lawsuit against the Treasury Department to keep privacy normal, to delist Tornado Cash privacy tools from sanctions, and to enjoin Treasury from enforcing against ordinary Americans exercising their self-evident and basic rights to privacy.

Read more: Coin Center is suing OFAC over its Tornado Cash sanction

Carman v. Yellen

A facial constitutional challenge to the amendment of Section 6050I of the Tax Code that was part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed in 2021. The amendment requires cryptocurrency users to collect and report personal information about the people they transact with directly to the government regardless of the fact that no third-party is involved.

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

Court Filings

Coin Center files court brief in defense of Tornado Cash developer

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

April 2024

Coin Center amicus brief in Grayscale v SEC

Coin Center filed this amicus curiae brief regarding the SEC's inconsistent standard for cryptocurrency related products

October 2022

Coin Center amicus brief in Jarrett v U.S.

Coin Center filed this amicus curiae brief urging a federal court to issue a final ruling in a case that can upend how block rewards are taxed

March 2022