原文标题：Coin Center’s Analysis of the Crypto Policy Landscape Following the Elections
By Peter Van Valkenburgh
Compiled by: Mensh, ChainCatcher
Cryptocurrencies have received a lot of attention in the recent election, and many are wondering how friendly the new administration and Congress will be. In short, we expect some areas to improve, while others will remain challenging. We expect that good policy may be easier to implement in securities and banking regulation, while there may be clearer rules governing centralized secondary markets and centralized stablecoin issuers.
In the areas of anti-money laundering, tax reporting, and sanctions, the outlook is less certain. Coin Center will continue to focus on protecting the rights of developers of self-custody and privacy software, as well as the rights of ordinary Americans who wish to use these tools. Below are our thoughts on these issues, along with our preliminary analysis of future opportunities and challenges.
How to think about cryptocurrency issues during a change in government?
Cryptocurrency policy issues can roughly be divided into two categories: surveillance issues (tax reporting, BSA Bank Secrecy Act, AML Anti-Money Laundering Act, sanctions) and investor protection issues (SEC, CFTC, banks). Achieving good policy in one category does not guarantee similar positive outcomes in the other category. The rationale behind each policy area is different (protecting investors versus identifying and stopping illegal fund flows), and lawmakers have different political motivations and coalition-building opportunities when focusing on one area.
Similarly, the cryptocurrency ecosystem can be divided into two categories: centralized enterprises (custodial wallet providers, centralized exchanges, trusted issuers) and decentralized infrastructure developers and users (protocol developers, non-custodial wallet and application developers, and non-intermediary users of these protocols and applications).
Coin Center hopes to achieve good policies across all areas, but our core mission is to defend the rights of developers and users of decentralized and peer-to-peer tools. Overregulation in the areas of investor protection or surveillance may threaten developers and users. However, the recent threats from the surveillance sector are particularly profound.
Here is a chart about past and potential future policy actions to help you understand this framework:
You may notice that the box in the lower right corner appears overly crowded. This part may reflect our bias. Coin Center's mission focuses on the rights of decentralized infrastructure developers to publish code (First Amendment issues) and to prevent undue surveillance obligations (Fourth Amendment issues), and the fourth quadrant is precisely the battleground where these two themes intersect. Although we may have biases, this area of concern has indeed seemed more aggressive than others over the past four years. There are many explanations for this, including the political halo and arguments of news cycles, politicians erroneously or opportunistically linking global and foreign policy tragedies with cryptocurrency (such as Hamas funding, Russian oligarchs attempting to evade sanctions), and the formation of political alliances, where the left and right, though rarely reaching consensus, sometimes find common ground on perceived issues of national security and surveillance.
What is the biggest threat?
In recent years, the freedom of individual cryptocurrency users and developers has faced serious threats. In its trading redefinition rules and enforcement actions against wallet providers like Metamask and Coinbase Wallet, we see the SEC being overly aggressive in directly regulating individual developers and users in its trading redefinition rules. Surveillance issues are also starting to emerge:
6050I (Note: The 6050I bill requires all digital asset transactions valued over $10,000 to be reported to tax authorities, effective January 1, 2024)
Tornado Cash sanctions (Note: On August 8, 2022, the U.S. Treasury's OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) added Tornado Cash to its sanctions list, accusing the open application of facilitating billions of dollars in money laundering activities)
Broker disclosure rules (Note: In August 2023, the Treasury released a proposed regulation aimed at defining under tax law that if a cryptocurrency-related person is considered a 'broker', they must collect personal information from their cryptocurrency tool users and report that information to the IRS for tax purposes)
And regarding unlicensed money transmission prosecutions against non-custodial developers (Note: On April 24, 2024, the indictment against Samourai Wallet was unsealed. On the same day, in the Tornado Cash case, the Department of Justice opposed Roman Storm's motion to dismiss and evidence exclusion. Prosecutors expanded the definition of fund transfers, which could affect the legal status of cryptocurrency wallet providers.). Meanwhile, in Congress, we oppose legislation that imposes unreasonable surveillance obligations on non-custodial developers in bills like CANSEE (Crypto Asset National Security Enhancement Act) and DAMLA (Digital Asset Market Structure and Regulatory Accountability Act).
This is a long-term struggle.
Three main threats come to mind: (1) 6050I, (2) Tornado Cash sanctions, (3) unlicensed money transmission prosecutions. First, we already have ongoing litigation in the context of 6050I; we argue that the warrantless reporting of personal information, including individuals receiving over $10,000 in cryptocurrency, mandated by the IRS is unconstitutional. Second, regarding Tornado Cash sanctions, we argue that the sanctions law does not empower the Treasury to prohibit Americans from using tools like smart contracts, as these tools are neither foreign nor their property. Third, we are alarmed to see the Southern District of New York prosecuting developers of non-custodial software tools (Tornado Cash and Samurai Wallet) for unlicensed money transmission, and we will continue to work to assist the defendants in these cases. While the Department of Justice may change under the Trump administration, it maintains its political independence and is therefore unlikely to abandon these prosecutions due to a change in government.
Can we still be optimistic?
In short, the new government will favor centralized enterprises based in the U.S., especially regarding investor protection issues. This is because intermediary services and effective capital formation are crucial to enhancing the appeal of cryptocurrency among audiences where technology is less mature. However, what about the key areas that Coin Center focuses on, which affect the developers and users of truly decentralized tools and services?
At the institutional level, there is reason to believe that the ongoing controversial rulemaking may be frozen or even abandoned due to President Trump’s overall support for cryptocurrency and his potential appointments at the SEC and Treasury. This would be a positive outcome, as the SEC's redefinition of trading and the IRS's broker rules for non-custodial developers hang over us like a sword.
It is uncertain whether the new government will be interested in scaling back excessive sanctions and anti-money laundering policies, which are at the core of the fourth quadrant. However, we still hope that even under a more friendly SEC, harsh surveillance and control policies will continue to drive innovators away from the U.S., stifle development, and deprive ordinary Americans of the benefits of these technologies (though they do not effectively prevent criminals and terrorists from using these technologies).
We are also optimistic that Congress may play a larger role in opposing surveillance issues. Members have sent letters criticizing the implementation of 6050I, the sanctions against Tornado Cash, and the prosecutions for unlicensed money transmission. Bills like the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act will provide legislative solutions for the unlicensed money transmission prosecutions, and we are ready to find a bipartisan path forward to push it through.
We look forward to working with the new government on this topic, and if we can persuasively present our arguments, they will give us a fair hearing. Throughout history, the constitutional rights of Americans, especially our respect for free speech and our vigilance against warrantless searches and seizures, should ensure that this is the best place to build and use cryptocurrency and open blockchain networks. 'Supporting crypto' does not just mean choosing friendlier agency heads or implementing business-friendly regulations; it also embodies a profound American spirit: standing up for privacy and speech in the most difficult times, particularly when national security interests are heightened, and the shadows of crime and terrorism briefly obscure our freedoms, privacy, and openness.