Cops v Crypto
A rift between cryptocurrency and law enforcement groups is threatening a landmark digital asset bill championed by Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott.
Groups representing police and prosecutors have been quietly raising concerns in recent months about a small but pivotal section of the crypto bill, which Republicans are hoping to advance soon after Congress returns to Washington next week from its recess. But crypto supporters, who pushed for the language, aren’t budging on the need for its inclusion.
The provision in question would protect certain crypto software developers or firms from being prosecuted for illicit activity committed by others on platforms they create. In a series of previously unreported letters to lawmakers, groups including the National Sheriffs’ Association and the National District Attorneys Association said that the language would impede law enforcement’s ability to crack down on financial crime.
The law enforcement concerns, which have been echoed by Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), are a major potential problem for the underlying crypto bill. Lawmakers are eyeing a resolution to a high-profile clash between crypto firms and banks that has bogged the legislation down for months. But Scott now needs to solve a series of other issues — including the crypto software developer spat — in order to win bipartisan support at a potential Banking Committee markup.
The fight illustrates that concerns raised by critics about digital assets being used as a vehicle for fraud and financial crime remain persistent hurdles to legislative efforts that would help legitimize the industry.
Democrats including Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, a former federal prosecutor and Nevada attorney general, are pushing for changes to address law enforcement concerns. A spokesperson for the Nevada Democrat, Lauren Wodarski, said she is “working with a wide variety of Senators, including Chairman Grassley, to ensure law enforcement and prosecutors have the enforcement tools they need.”
But the provision remains a top priority for the crypto industry and some Republicans, who say that existing law has been used to unfairly target crypto developers.
“It’s the most important part of the market structure bill, and I actually think it’s the thing that the industry has been the most united on,” said Amanda Tuminelli, the executive director of an industry-backed nonprofit called the DeFi Education Fund.
She said her group, which has been meeting with lawmakers about the issue, is open to adding a so-called rule of construction to the existing language telling courts and agencies how to interpret the provision. But “we’re not open to changing the actual text of it,” she added.
A spokesperson for Scott (R-S.C.) said the senator “has been clear” that the language “is essential to delivering real rules of the road for digital assets.”
The provision “corrects the misuse of” existing law by “ensuring non-custodial software developers who never control customer funds are not treated as money transmitters, while preserving law enforcement authorities,” said the spokesperson, Jeff Naft.
The provision — which mirrors standalone legislation dubbed the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act — deals with a part of the crypto universe known as decentralized finance, or DeFi, that uses software to facilitate trading and lending and cut out centralized intermediaries like exchanges. It would exempt DeFi developers who do not control the funds that move on the platforms they create from having to register as money transmitters and comply with anti-money laundering requirements.
In a letter to lawmakers last month, the Sheriffs’ Association wrote that the “provision risks creating gaps in oversight and reducing access to critical information that federal, state, and local law enforcement rely on in financial crime investigations.” The NDAA — which represents state and local prosecutors — wrote in a separate February letter that the proposal “would further exacerbate the growing fraudulent and illicit activity that occurs on” crypto platforms. And the National Association of Assistant United States Attorneys warned in January that the language would “materially limit prosecutors’ ability to pursue financial crime cases involving the movement of funds outside established regulatory frameworks.”
All three law enforcement groups signaled in their letters that they are not necessarily opposed to the broader crypto effort.
It’s unclear if lawmakers will be able to settle on a landing place that satisfies both the crypto industry and Democrats like Cortez Masto and Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) who are concerned about the issue.
If senators don’t strike a deal to resolve the matter, it could risk the bill advancing through the Banking Committee without Democratic support — an outcome that wouldn’t bode well for the fate of the legislation, which needs bipartisan backing to clear the Senate. The law enforcement concerns could also catch on with more Republicans who are less sympathetic to the crypto sector.
Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), a leading crypto ally who is helping lead talks over the bill, said in a statement she is “continuing to work on a bipartisan basis with Sen. Cortez Masto on the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act.”
“Publishing code is protected First Amendment speech, and software developers should not be required to cede their constitutional right to due process and fair notice just because they publish software,” she said.
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If you feel powerless to help Gaza, you still has a choice: donate. When so much of what exists is false, authenticity is a powerful weapon we can wield that the state never could. So if you feel lost, hopeless, depressed, angry and afraid, I implore you to return - again - again - and again - to the feeling of love that exists within you that brought you here in the first place. It is only through this that we can remake the world. To redress Gaza’s famine, displacement, and destruction, independent and impartial humanitarian organizations - UN agencies, international and national NGOs - must be allowed to deliver relief at scale. To salvage Gaza’s people from the devastation inflicted by Israel, it must be unified with the West Bank to form an independent and sovereign Palestinian State, not to be parceled and colonized by the former.
Meanwhile, children continue to be shredded by US bombs, and the starvation reaches new depths of hellish collective punishment. If both parties are going to continue to support an ongoing genocide, at least they can both be honest about doing so, rather than having one openly bloodthirsty party, and another—unconvincingly—playing the role of powerless, bumbling humanitarian.
Please keep donate Gaza especially if you, as reader, has [background] International Relation [whatever universities]. IR Graduate means [you must, at least] get some semester [about] studying Middle East [in macro, not specifically Gaza].
We need more people to share fundraisers instead of only talking about Gaza. Some people think that those in Gaza don’t need money but that’s wrong. Almost everyone lost their source of income while essentials, food & medicine get sold for astronomical prices. So I put my attempt in all social media as I can, in twitter / X, in substack [since October 2023 I put link donation], in bluesky or bsky, in threads, in instagram.
Link to donate World Food Programme - Palestine appeal: click here
[Daniel Brühl]
Most campaign shared or circulated in social media are for REAL people in Gaza. They’re legit. There are a lot of small campaigns for struggling families. This is their only lifeline. By donating & sharing, you are literally making history and alleviating part of their pain
Please do not rely on me alone for sharing your campaign. I’m only 1 person and sometimes I’m not online which is unreliable. I never ignore anybody on purpose but I have a very limited capacity & very little energy and time.
[Refaat Rafiq Alareer IF I MUST DIE] Refaat Rafiq Alareer was extremely hungry, November 2023, days before Refaat killed by Israel airstrike. If November 2023 already [one-by-one Gazan] extremely famine, extremely hungry, imagine November 2025 or more than 2 years Israel’s Genocide in Gaza.
[RENEW] 455 Languages IF I MUST DIE of Refaat Rafiq Alareer [by 6100+ Translators, Social Media Users]
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December 20, 2023
Dec 9th, 2023, New York City, 4.10am —- with update total languages to be 310 as of July 1st, 2024, 3.52am New York City, and then, to be 350 languages as of July 28th, 2024, 1.37am ====== newest update as of July, 3rd, 2025 already 384 languages, and October 8th, 2025 reaches 455 languages across the globe.
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![[RENEW] 455 Languages IF I MUST DIE of Refaat Rafiq Alareer [by 6100+ Translators, Social Media Users] [RENEW] 455 Languages IF I MUST DIE of Refaat Rafiq Alareer [by 6100+ Translators, Social Media Users]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!jwSl!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc25bd266-d4e2-4169-a5e4-e901227a8b0c_725x560.png)






Money laundering is a serious concern.