The SEC’s Crypto Task Force is hosting a big crypto privacy roundtable on December 15 to talk about privacy in crypto and how it fits with the usual money monitoring rules. It’s not a rule making session, just an open chat between regulators and industry folks. And it will be live streamed for everyone to watch.
Privacy has suddenly become a hot topic again after two painful court cases. In June, Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm got a partial guilty verdict. And just this month a Samourai Wallet dev was sentenced. Both tools were non custodial, yet the government still went after the coders. Which is leaving developers wondering where the line is.
Privacy coins have been pumping the last two months. With these cases hanging over their heads, builders are nervous about writing code that hides transaction details even if it’s open source and nobody controls the keys.
The crypto privacy roundtable will focus on real-life headaches: how do privacy tools work with KYC, AML, and surveillance laws without breaking them? The SEC says they’ll drop the speaker list and full agenda soon; in-person seats need registration, but anyone can watch online.
No new rules will come out of it, but the talk could shape how the agency thinks about privacy tech going forward.
