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Financial Technology Protection Act; Update in DEF's Case v. the SEC; DEF's CLO on Tornado Cash

Financial Technology Protection Act


What happened? 

Last week, the Financial Technology Protection Act, passed the House of Representatives by a voice vote (⅔ majority). The bipartisan legislation would establish an Independent Financial Technology Working Group to Combat Terrorism and Illicit Financing, which would do research related to illicit finance and terrorism and propose legislation. The Working Group would be chaired by the Secretary of the Treasury, acting through the Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, and would include senior legal representatives from key federal government departments along with private sector representatives from financial technology companies, blockchain intelligence companies, and financial institutions. 


What does this mean? 

The bipartisan passage of the bill illustrates an effort from Congress to better understand financial technology and its role in illicit finance before rushing to a solution. This is a more suitable approach than past attempts at addressing illicit finance without attempting to understand the way new rules would work with the underlying technology. 


DEF/Beba Airdrop Update

Last Wednesday, DEF and Beba filed an amended complaint in our ongoing litigation against the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Our amended complaint reinforced the claims we made in the original complaint filed in May: Beba’s free airdrop was not a securities transaction and that the SEC violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) when they adopted, without notice and comment rulemaking, the rule that nearly all digital asset transactions were securities transactions. We await the SEC’s response and will continue fighting vigorously to defend the rights of Beba and the digital asset industry at large. 


DEF’s CLO Amanda Tuminelli Interviewed on Tornado Cash 

Last week, Blockchain Tipsheet sat down with DEF’s Amanda Tuminelli, to discuss the U.S. government’s treatment of crypto mixers as well as the indictment of Tornado Cash software developers Roman Storm and Roman Seminov.


Read the full interview here. 




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