Sponsors (3)
The bill builds a coordinated, research-based federal approach and clearer definitions to detect and disrupt illicit use of digital assets—improving transparency and compliance—but does so at the cost of potential privacy and civil‑liberty risks, higher compliance burdens for firms and startups, and additional taxpayer-funded administrative costs.
Taxpayers, state governments, and financial institutions will get a coordinated, research-driven federal strategy and concrete proposals to detect and disrupt terrorist and illicit financing using digital assets.
Financial institutions, fintech firms, and tech workers will receive clearer regulatory recommendations, risk-mitigation guidance, and definitional clarity that reduce compliance uncertainty for digital-asset activity.
Taxpayers, researchers, industry, and the public will benefit from regular, unclassified, machine-readable reports and timely briefings that improve transparency, oversight, and access to findings about digital-asset risks.
Users and communities (taxpayers, tech workers, immigrants, people with disabilities) face increased privacy and civil‑liberties risks because broader definitions, cross-references to terrorism statutes, and potential private-sector influence could expand surveillance powers or bias policy toward industry-friendly monitoring tools.
Financial institutions, fintech firms, startups, and small businesses may incur higher compliance, operational, and enforcement costs and face procurement or market-access restrictions if the strategy leads to stricter controls, broader definitions, or heightened regulatory scrutiny.
Taxpayers and financial institutions could be put at greater risk if public reports inadvertently disclose investigative methods or vulnerabilities that bad actors could exploit.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Creates a Treasury-led working group and reporting requirements to study and propose policies to prevent terrorist and illicit financing using digital assets and related technologies.
Official title: Establish an Independent Financial Technology Working Group to Combat Terrorism and Illicit Financing, and for other purposes.
Introduced July 31, 2025 by Theodore Paul Budd · Last progress July 31, 2025
Creates an independent Treasury-led working group to research and counter terrorist and illicit uses of digital assets and related technologies, require public and classified reporting, and produce a U.S. strategy to mitigate those threats. The bill mandates an initial unclassified report within 180 days from the President (with an optional classified annex), annual reports from the working group for up to four years, public posting of unclassified material in machine-readable formats, and a wind‑down process for the working group with transfer of unobligated funds to the Treasury on termination. The measure targets gaps in anti-money laundering, sanctions evasion, and terrorist financing involving cryptographically secured ledgers and emerging technologies by coordinating federal agencies, incorporating private-sector expertise (including blockchain intelligence firms), and producing legislative and regulatory recommendations to strengthen U.S. defenses against illicit finance using digital assets.