A March 26 letter signed by 34 crypto companies and advocate groups sent to the Senate Banking Committee, House Financial Services Committee and the House and Senate judiciary committees said the DOJ’s take on unlicensed money-transmitting business means “essentially every blockchain developer could be prosecuted as a criminal.”The letter — led by the DeFi Education Fund and signed by the likes of Kraken and Coinbase — added that the Justice Department’s interpretation “creates confusion and ambiguity” and “threatens the viability of U.S.-based software development in the digital asset industry.”The group said the DOJ debuted its position “in August 2023 via criminal indictment” — the same time it charged Tornado Cash developers Roman Storm and Roman Semenov with money laundering.
They said the result had seen “two separate US government agencies with conflicting interpretations of ‘money transmission’ — an unclear, unfair position for law-abiding industry participants and innovators.”The letter said that if not addressed, the Justice Department’s interpretation would expose non-custodial software developers “within the reach of the U.S.to criminal liability.”“The resulting, and very rational, fear among developers would effectively end the development of these technologies in the United States.”In January, Michael Lewellen, a fellow of the crypto advocacy group Coin Center, sued Attorney General Merrick Garland to have his planned release of non-custodial software declared legal and to block the DOJ from using money transmitting laws to prosecute him.
It added that 2019 guidance from the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) gave examples of what money-transmitting activities and said that “if a software developer never obtains possession or control over customer funds, that developer is not operating a ‘money transmitting business.’”The letter argued that the DOJ had taken a position that the definition of a money transmitting business under section 5330 “is not relevant to determining whether someone is operating an unlicensed ‘money transmitting business’ under Section 1960” despite the “intentional similarity” in both sections and FinCEN’s guidance.
or
Share This Story
Article Details
Author / Journalist: Cointelegraph by Jesse Coghlan
The story "Crypto urges Congress to change DOJ rule used against Tornado Cash devs" has 545 words across 17 sentences, which will take approximately 3 - 5 minutes for the average person to read.
Which news outlet covered this story?
The story "Crypto urges Congress to change DOJ rule used against Tornado Cash devs" was covered 3 days ago by Coin Telegraph, a news publisher based in United States.
How trustworthy is 'Coin Telegraph' news outlet?
Coin Telegraph is a fully independent (privately-owned) news outlet established in 2013 that covers mostly crypto news.
The outlet is headquartered in United States and publishes an average of 5 news stories per day.
It's most recent story was published 7 hours ago.
What do people currently think of this news story?
The sentiment for this story is currently Negative, indicating that people regard this as "bad news".
How do I report this news for inaccuracy?
You can report an inaccurate news publication to us via our contact page. Please also include the news #ID number and the URL to this story.
