Bimoo

The most important issue currently facing the digital asset industry: the DOJ’s interpretation of Section 1960 - the criminal code provision punishing unlicensed “money transmitting businesses.” That is why I wrote this paper with @dbarabander and @jchervinsky explaining the issues inherent to Section 1960 and providing legal support for the *correct* interpretation: in order to be a “money transmitting business,” the business must have independent control over user funds.

https://edit.financialcrimelitigators.org/api/assets/cd682a1c-1cb0-4c99-a491-ac6155f4bdc2.pdf

It was an honor to advocate on behalf of DeFi developers and users in front of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Digital Assets today.

I was grateful to sit next to the extremely talented experts @rebecca-r, @valkenburgh and Brian Avello.

Today @fund-defi and @blockchainassn filed an amicus brief in support of a challenge to the SEC’s Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT), arguing that the CAT, especially when it pertains to the digital asset sector, “unacceptably undermines privacy and personal freedom.”

ICYMI, the CAT is the largest database of securities txs ever created and will include personally identifiable information on every retail brokerage customer in the U.S. Given the SEC’s position that digital asset market participants are exchanges, brokers, and/or dealers, the SEC may force them to comply with CAT reporting requirements.

The result, which we warn the court about, is that the CAT could connect personally identifiable user info with wallet addresses, providing the government with more tools to track user financial activity for all time. This info would then be at the disposal of the government, creating unprecedented privacy concerns.

https://www.defieducationfund.org/_files/ugd/84ba66_38222aa7b44f4e7392f0b9b22bf82039.pdf

Hope you all will join and bring questions related to all things policy and law.

The SEC Consolidated Audit Trail will be the largest database of tx and user info in existence. It is particularly problematic for digital asset users.

@mtcoppel and I wrote an op ed about why more people in crypto should be talking about it: https://www.coindesk.com/opinion/2024/06/05/cryptos-latest-privacy-battle/

The DOJ's opposition to Roman Storm's motions to dismiss and suppress evidence in the Tornado Cash case is filled with technical inaccuracies, obvious disdain for privacy and emerging technology, and misapplication of the law.

A few of the egregious statements in the 111-page brief in this thread 👇

"I wish we weren’t in this uncertain moment for technology that yields such unlimited promise and potential. But I felt compelled to stand up for myself, businesses like mine, our allies, and an entire industry yearning for clean and fair rules of the road. That’s why I am suing the SEC." - Nathan Hennigh

While I am incredibly proud of the amount of work we have done to defend defi so far, we are just getting started. We need additional resources to keep up the fight. Please support@fund-defi

Some quick thoughts on the Coinbase decision today…

https://x.com/amandatums/status/1773011576552882384