Treasury’s DeFi Risk Assessment and more - Coin Center Newsletter
Now that the new Congress has gotten fully up to speed, cryptocurrency policy is slowly starting to move again. These past few months featured a battery of hearings on topics ranging from crypto mining energy use to stablecoin policy.
The most alarming move from Congress was not actually about cryptocurrency, but rather about TikTok. The RESTRICT Act, which is meant to ban Americans from using the service, but is written so broadly that if passed would amount to a new and less accountable sanctions regime. Coin Center pointed this out.
Peter Van Valkenburgh joined journalist Taylor Lorenz on the Reason podcast to discuss the matter:
Recent reports indicate that Senators Warren and Marshall have delayed introducing the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act in an attempt to gather more support for the bill. The bill would force anyone who helps maintain public blockchain infrastructure, either through software development or validating transactions on the network, to register with the federal government.
Coin Center wrote about how this bill is a direct attack on the personal freedom and privacy of cryptocurrency users and developers, and has been working to ensure members of Congress oppose the bill as drafted.
The Treasury department published a DeFi risk assessment that raised concerns across the cryptocurrency industry. The report misunderstands self custody, smart contracts, and other key elements relevant to AML policy.
Read Coin Center’s analysis: Treasury’s new DeFi risk assessment relies on ill-fitting frameworks and makes potentially unconstitutional recommendations
Coin Center also made some news of its own by hiring its first staff in years. We have been a team of five since the start. Now we are a team of six.
(Click through for the full thread)
Landon Zinda joins us as Policy Counsel. He comes to us from the Senate Banking Committee, handling cryptocurrency policy issues for Senator Toomey, and previously served as Legislative Director for Blockchain Caucus Co-Chair (and now House Majority Whip) Rep. Tom Emmer. During his time on Capitol Hill, Landon earned the respect of his peers and worked to draft several pieces of legislation that are Coin Center priorities, including the Virtual Currency Tax Fairness Act, Securities Clarity Act, and the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act.
The 2023 Coin Center Annual Dinner was a huge success. Thank you to all who joined us. You can see pictures from the event here.
We are already planning next year’s dinner so stay tuned for more information.
Finally, Peter was on the PGP (Pretty Good Policy) podcast discussing electronic cash and the Constitution.
You can listen to the whole thing here.