The Patriot Act for Crypto and CLARITY

Earlier this month I came across a piece by Lola Leetz warning that basic privacy practices on the blockchain could soon become crimes.

At a FinCEN hearing, Director Andrea Gacki confirmed they’re finalizing a mixer rule modeled after the Patriot Act. It doesn’t just target mixers—it targets any privacy tools: splitting transactions, using one-time wallets, even delaying transactions. In other words, the normal ways people protect themselves online.

Developers could face criminal liability, and everyday users may be treated as suspects simply for practicing privacy. Meanwhile, politicians pushing these laws take money from the same crypto scammers they claim to protect the public from.

Even with updates to the CLARITY Act that clarify what counts as “running” versus “writing” software, the message is clear: crypto privacy is being dragged under the same surveillance regime as traditional finance.

🪧 Read the full article on Substack: tbot.substack.com