Coinbase News: Crypto Industry Coalition Urges Congress to Address DOJ’s Expansive Money Transmission Interpretation

In a significant development for the cryptocurrency industry, a group of prominent firms has joined forces to address a concerning issue related to federal regulations. Here’s a closer look at the situation and their call to action.

Crypto Firms Urge Congress to Rein in DOJ’s Money Transmission Interpretation

A coalition of 34 crypto industry organizations, including Coinbase, Kraken, Uniswap Labs, Ledger, Consensys, Paradigm, and the DeFi Education Fund, has sent a joint letter to congressional leaders urging them to address the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) ’unprecedented and overly expansive’ interpretation of the federal statute governing unlicensed money transmission. The letter focuses on the DOJ’s recent application of 18 U.S.C. §1960 to software developers, which emerged in the August 2023 criminal indictment of Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm. Prosecutors charged the open-source developer under Section 1960, which criminalizes operating an ’unlicensed money transmitting business.’ The signatories argue that this marked a departure from past practice and creates significant legal uncertainty for the crypto industry.

Wyoming State Gears Towards Launching a Stablecoin This Year

Wyoming state is making steps towards launching a stablecoin later this year, which could be the first fiat-backed and fully reserved token issued by a public entity in the U.S. The Wyoming Stable Token (WYST) is currently being tested on Avalanche, Solana, Ethereum, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, and Coinbase’s Base testnets. The state is working with LayerZero, a blockchain interoperability firm, to facilitate token deployment across these networks. Governor Mark Gordon and Wyoming Stable Token Commission Executive Director Anthony Apollo said that the token’s testing phase will continue through the second quarter, with a potential full launch targeted for July.