Article Not Found

The article could not be found.

Try searching or paste a Nostr address (naddr)

If you have the article's Nostr address (naddr), paste it in the search box below. We'll attempt to fetch it from the relays and add it to our index.

Looking for people? Search users

Cover image for U.S. Treasury Recognizes Legitimate Uses for Crypto Mixers, Proposes “Hold Law” for Suspicious Assets

U.S. Treasury Recognizes Legitimate Uses for Crypto Mixers, Proposes “Hold Law” for Suspicious Assets

Bitcoin Magazine U.S. Treasury Recognizes Legitimate Uses for Crypto Mixers, Proposes “Hold Law” for Suspicious Assets The U.S. Treasury Department told Congress that bitcoin or crypto mixers can serve legitimate financial privacy purposes, signaling a shift in the government’s approach to blockchain privacy tools. The 32-page report, submitted under the GENIUS Act, also proposes new legislative tools to combat illicit finance, including a “hold law” that would give financial institutions temporary safe harbor to freeze suspicious digital assets. The report acknowledges that lawful users may employ mixers to protect sensitive information on personal wealth, business payments, or charitable donations. This represents a recalibration from Treasury’s earlier stance, which included sanctioning Tornado Cash in 2022 and designating international mixers as money-laundering hubs in 2023. At the same time, Treasury data shows that criminal actors, particularly those linked to North Korea, continue to exploit mixers. The report cites DPRK-affiliated cybercriminals who stole at least $2.8 billion in digital assets between January 2024 and September 2025, including a $1.5 billion hack of the Bybit exchange. In these operations, mixers are commonly used to break tracing links, often in combination with stablecoin swaps and cross-chain bridges. JUST IN: US Treasury reports to Congress that using Bitcoin and crypto privacy mixers are NOT unlawful: "Lawful users of digital assets may leverage mixers to enable financial privacy when transacting through public blockchains." Big win for privacy! pic.twitter.com/l4kAMCAlhI — Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) March 9, 2026 New data on crypto laundering The report provides original Treasury analysis of mixing activity involving stablecoins and bridges. Since May 2020, more than $37.4 billion in withdrawals from over 50 bridges were denominated in the two largest stablecoins by market capitalization. Of that total, approximately $1.6 billion flowed from mixing services, with over $900 million concentrated in a single bridge scrutinized for DPRK-linked activity. The Treasury noted in the report that direct stablecoin deposits into crypto mixers for illicit purposes are relatively low, but criminals frequently convert other digital assets through mixers before swapping into stablecoins to obscure the source. The report distinguishes between custodial and non-custodial crypto mixers. Custodial services, which must register with FinCEN as money services businesses, can provide identity data, off-chain transaction information, and behavioral patterns. The Treasury does not recommend new restrictions on non-custodial mixers and refrains from finalizing FinCEN’s 2023 proposed recordkeeping rule, instead citing a 2025 Presidential Working Group report recommending careful evaluation of privacy and illicit finance risks. ‘Hold law’ to crack down on illicit activity Treasury also urged Congress to enact a digital asset–specific “hold law,” creating a temporary safe harbor for freezing suspicious assets during brief investigations. The department described such a law as particularly useful for countering illicit finance involving permitted stablecoins. On decentralized finance, the report recommends Congress specify which actors should face anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) obligations based on their roles and associated risks. It also proposes expanding Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act to authorize the Treasury to impose conditions on certain digital asset transfers that fall outside correspondent banking relationships. These proposals align with concerns raised by industry groups, including Galaxy Research, which in January warned that the Senate Banking Committee’s CLARITY Act could represent the largest expansion of financial surveillance authority since the Patriot Act. The report comes at somewhat of an inflection point for crypto regulation. Treasury lifted Tornado Cash sanctions in March 2025 after a federal appeals court found OFAC had exceeded its authority, though a Manhattan jury later convicted co-founder Roman Storm of operating an unlicensed money transmitter. The Department of Justice has indicated a narrower approach to prosecuting developers, suggesting that coding privacy tools without criminal intent should not constitute a violation. The U.S. Treasury framed the report within a broader effort to study “innovative or novel” tools for detecting illicit activity in crypto, as mandated by the 2025 GENIUS Act. The report draws on more than 220 public comments and consultations with financial institutions, blockchain analytics firms, crypto firms, law enforcement, and recent national risk assessments. This post U.S. Treasury Recognizes Legitimate Uses for Crypto Mixers, Proposes “Hold Law” for Suspicious Assets first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Cover image for Fed Rate Cut Boosts Bitcoin Price Ahead of Q4 Melt-Up

Fed Rate Cut Boosts Bitcoin Price Ahead of Q4 Melt-Up

Bitcoin Magazine Fed Rate Cut Boosts Bitcoin Price Ahead of Q4 Melt-Up Historically, bitcoin’s price peaks approximately 20 months after a Bitcoin halving. The last Bitcoin halving occurred in April 2024, which means we could see a cycle top by December of this year. The odds of this are increasingly likely as Fed Chair Powell cut rates by 25 bps today, giving the approximately $7.4 trillion sitting in money market funds a reason to come off the sidelines and move into a hard asset like bitcoin, especially now that it’s easier to obtain exposure to bitcoin via spot bitcoin ETFs and proxies like bitcoin treasury companies. Powell also signaled today that two more rate cuts could be on the way before the year is out, which would only further reduce returns in money market funds, potentially pushing investors into hard assets like bitcoin and gold as well as riskier assets like tech and AI-related stocks. This could catalyze the final leg of a “melt-up” comparable to what we saw with tech stocks at the end of 1999 before the dot com bubble burst. In 1998, the Fed slashed rates by 75 basis points, igniting the dot-com bubble. Now the Fed is preparing to cut rates by at least 75 basis points over the next few months and may be making the same mistake with the AI bubble. Learn more:https://t.co/F9WZFQcABp$SPY $QQQ pic.twitter.com/r5yMoeycMX — Jesse Colombo (@TheBubbleBubble) September 16, 2025 Also, much like the likes of Henrik Zeberg and David Hunter, I believe the stage is being set for the final parabolic leg of a bull run that began in late 2022. As I said in 2022…. (when everybody was Bearish). The BlowOffTop would begin….. THIS IS IT! IT IS DEVELOPING RIGHT NOW! pic.twitter.com/bRERaWjf8T — Henrik Zeberg (@HenrikZeberg) September 17, 2025 Using a traditional financial index as a reference point, Zeberg sees the S&P 500 exceeding 7,000 before the year is out, while Hunter sees it rising to 8,000 (or higher) within the same time frame. @DaveHcontrarian forecast the S&P to 6000 at the end of 2022, when many other investors were predicting 2000. Now he has raised his target further to 8000, seeing more upside before the economy faulters later in the year. pic.twitter.com/oclBwqrh0L — Anthony (@AnthonyFatseas) July 2, 2025 What is more, we may be witnessing the breakdown of a 14-year support level for the US dollar, according to Macro Strategist Octavio (Tavi) Costa, which means we could see a markedly weaker dollar in the coming months, something else that would support the bull case for hard and risk assets. This move has profound implications in my view. The DXY index appears to be breaking down from a 14-year support level. If confirmed, it could signal the start of a sustained downward trend in the US dollar, in my view. Don’t underestimate the importance of major technical… pic.twitter.com/aFScjjXS8b — Otavio (Tavi) Costa (@TaviCosta) September 16, 2025 What Happens Come 2026? Both Zeberg and Hunter believe that, as of early next year, we’ll see the largest bust across all markets that we’ve seen since October 1929, when financial markets in the US collapsed, spurring the onset of the Great Depression. Zeberg’s rationale for this includes the real economy grinding to a halt, in part evidenced by the amount of homes on the market. Remember – there are analysts telling us that this is Early Cycle…..? We are heading right into the worst Recession SINCE 1930s. BlowOffTop still developing – but we can see an end to it! https://t.co/uZkTnYk9WT — Henrik Zeberg (@HenrikZeberg) September 17, 2025 Hunter believes that we’re at the end of a half century long secular debt-fueled cycle that will end with a leverage unwind unlike anything we’ve seen in modern history, as per what he shared on Coin Stories. Other signals like loan payment delinquencies also point to the idea that the real economy is screeching to a halt, which will inevitably have an effect on the financial economy. Student loans 90+ days delinquent have exploded higher to heights never seen before. https://t.co/sk8T9W07fb pic.twitter.com/BjFe6xPH9Q — Financelot (@FinanceLancelot) September 5, 2025 The Bitcoin Downturn Isn’t Guaranteed, but It’s Likely Even if we aren’t headed toward a global macro bust, bitcoin’s price will take a hit in 2026 if history repeats itself. That is, bitcoin’s price dropped from almost $69,000 at the end of 2021 to approximately $15,500 by the end of 2022 and from almost $20,000 at the end of 2017 to just over $3,000 at the end of 2018. In both cases, bitcoin’s price either tapped or dipped below its 200-week standard moving average (SMA), the light blue line on the charts below. Currently, bitcoin’s 200-week SMA is sitting at about $52,000. If we see a parabolic rise in bitcoin’s price in the coming months, it could rise as high as $65,000, before bitcoin’s price drops to such a price point or lower some time in 2026. If we do see the type of bust that Zeberg and Hunter are forecasting, bitcoin’s price could also drop well below that threshold. With all of that said, no one knows what the future holds, and please don’t interpret anything in this article as financial advice. At the same time, you may want to keep in mind that while history doesn’t necessarily repeat itself, it often rhymes. This post Fed Rate Cut Boosts Bitcoin Price Ahead of Q4 Melt-Up first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Frank Corva.

Return to Homepage