US SENATOR CYNTHIA LUMMIS DEFENDS CRYPTO WALLET DEVELOPERS
Cryptocurrency wallet developers are not to blame for the flow of criminal assets
Two senators have sent a letter to the U.S. Attorney General accusing the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Agency (FinCEN) of bias against crypto regulation. The letter was authored by Senators Cynthia Lummis (Cynthia Lummis) and Ron Wyden (Ron Wyden). In a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, the congressmen assert that FinCEN unreasonably criminalizes the circulation of digital assets and prevents the emergence of responsible financial innovation
"The Biden Administration is promoting and supporting FinCEN's interpretation of U.S. law alien to the crypto community, which is wrong in law and undermines the entrepreneurial foundations that have made America a global economic leader. Wallet software is no more to blame for illicit finance than a highway is to blame for a bank robber fleeing in a car. We are deeply committed to ensuring that every American has the ability to store their own digital assets and that the emerging industry has the opportunity to operate legally in our country."
Senators believe that FinCEN's new expansive interpretation of crypto-regulatory and financial crime laws, as demonstrated by FinCEN's criminal cases against the developers of the Samourai and Tornado Cash mixing services, is intended to target programmers and innovators. Rather than focusing on the attackers who steal digital assets.
"We are concerned that the DOJ's interpretation will treat software developers as criminals - for simply writing and publishing code used by others. This is a dangerous legal precedent that is contrary to U.S. law and has unpredictable consequences," the senators lamented.
