{"id":3492,"date":"2025-05-21T21:16:07","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T21:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/21\/bitcoiners-should-care-about-the-genius-act\/"},"modified":"2025-05-21T21:16:07","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T21:16:07","slug":"bitcoiners-should-care-about-the-genius-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/21\/bitcoiners-should-care-about-the-genius-act\/","title":{"rendered":"Bitcoiners Should Care About The GENIUS Act"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bitcoin Magazine<\/a><\/p>\n

Bitcoiners Should Care About The GENIUS Act<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

While the GENIUS Act is a stablecoin bill, U.S.-based Bitcoin enthusiasts should be paying attention to the language in the bill as it pertains to the ability to transact privately with crypto assets \u2014 including bitcoin.<\/p>\n

Two documents that recently circulated among Senate Banking Committee Democrats indicate that Senate Democrats want to see amendments made to the GENIUS Act that would greatly reduce user privacy in crypto transactions.<\/p>\n

Senate Democrats\u2019 Analysis of GENIUS Act<\/h2>\n

The first of these two documents is a two-pager entitled \u201cBanking Committee Democratic Staff Analysis on Latest GENIUS Act Draft<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

\n

NEW: Senate Banking Committee Democrats just dropped a scathing staff analysis of the latest GENIUS Act draft ahead of this evening\u2019s cloture vote.<\/p>\n

Staffers describe the latest GENIUS Act draft as a blueprint for \u2018Trump crypto corruption\u2019 and Big Tech dominance over digital\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/Gqd2LxFGx1<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Eleanor Terrett (@EleanorTerrett) May 19, 2025<\/a>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

This document is filled with the type of rhetoric that is commonly associated with the Ranking Member of the Senate Banking Committee, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It refers to stablecoins as tools for illicit finance (despite the fact that the largest stablecoin issuer, Tether, often works with the Department of Justice (DoJ) and the FBI<\/a> to stop the illegal use of stablecoins).<\/p>\n

It also states that the current iteration of the GENIUS Act \u201cdoes nothing to actually impose basic obligations on [crypto mixers] to prevent illicit finance.\u201d<\/p>\n

A segment from document featuring Democrats\u2019 analysis of The GENIUS Act.<\/p>\n

This latter critique of the bill is antithetical to guidance that Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Todd Blanche offered in a memo<\/a> on April 7, 2025. DAG Blanche stated that the DoJ will no longer target crypto mixing services<\/a> for the acts of their end users.<\/p>\n

In this document, however, Senate Democrats indicate that they plan to continue targeting crypto mixing technology instead of those who abuse it.<\/p>\n

If amendments regarding the targeting of crypto mixers are added to a revised version of the GENIUS Act, this could have an impact on Bitcoin users who employ such technology in the name of preserving their privacy.<\/p>\n

A Letter From Democrats Opposing The GENIUS Act<\/h2>\n

Senate Banking Democrats circulated a second document on Monday, as well.<\/p>\n

This document, a letter signed by 46 advocacy groups, opposed the GENIUS Act.<\/p>\n

Brendan Pedersen of Punchbowl News<\/a> shared segments of the letter on X.<\/p>\n

\n

Democratic staff on the Senate Banking Committee sent around a letter this AM signed by several dozen advocacy orgs opposing the GENIUS Act. <\/p>\n

Includes ACRE, AFR, Center for Responsible Lending, Our Revolution, Public Citizen, Tech Oversight Project\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/pragFvzSKB<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Brendan Pedersen (@BrendanPedersen) May 19, 2025<\/a>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

The authors of the letter claim that the GENIUS Act does not do enough to prevent illicit finance in part because it still allows for \u201cself-hosted wallets that lack know-your-customer (KYC) requirements.\u201d<\/p>\n

A segment from the letter opposing The GENIUS Act that touches on noncustodial wallets and KYC requirements.<\/p>\n

If the GENIUS Act is amended so that it requires KYC for all wallets that touch stablecoins \u2014 self-custodial wallets included \u2014 it\u2019s likely only a matter of time before similar regulation is established for Bitcoin wallets.<\/p>\n

Bitcoin Transactional Privacy Is At Stake<\/h2>\n

Just because the GENIUS Act doesn\u2019t directly reference Bitcoin doesn\u2019t mean that Bitcoin won\u2019t be affected by it.<\/p>\n

If Senate Democrats get their way and crypto mixers become a target of the bill and\/or if the bill requires that all wallets that touch stablecoins require users to KYC, and the bill is enacted into law, anonymity in crypto transactions will become a crime.<\/p>\n

So, while some Bitcoiners may be anti-stablecoins, most, I would wager, aren\u2019t anti-privacy. Therefore, it would behoove them to contact their elected officials to urge them to vote \u201cno\u201d for the GENIUS Act if the upcoming iteration of the bill restricts the ability to transact privately.<\/p>\n

This post Bitcoiners Should Care About The GENIUS Act<\/a> first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine<\/a> and is written by Frank Corva<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bitcoin Magazine Bitcoiners Should Care About The GENIUS Act While the GENIUS Act is a stablecoin bill, U.S.-based Bitcoin enthusiasts should be paying attention to the language in the bill as it pertains to the ability to transact privately with crypto assets \u2014 including bitcoin. Two documents that recently circulated among Senate Banking Committee Democrats […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3492","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bitcoin"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}