Sponsors (2)
The bill aims to strengthen federal ability to find, secure, and use seized digital assets through standardization, audits, and funding mechanisms—improving investigations and accountability—but does so in ways that increase government access to cryptographic materials, raise privacy and surveillance risks, and impose new costs and administrative burdens on agencies, providers, and taxpayers.
Federal law enforcement and agency custodians will be better able to locate, inventory, secure, and recover stolen or illicit digital assets (including private keys and wallet artifacts), reducing loss of seized assets and preserving value for forfeiture or restitution.
Federal agencies and custodial providers will operate under clearer, standardized definitions and technical rules (e.g., what counts as cryptographic key/wallet material, ESI, digital asset), improving interagency cooperation, technical interoperability, and consistency in investigations and compliance.
Regular audits, logging, IG reviews, and reporting requirements will increase oversight and accountability over agency handling of digital assets, help detect breaches or unauthorized access, and produce actionable recommendations to fix compliance gaps.
Individuals' private cryptographic keys and wallet data may face increased government scanning, inventorying, and potential seizure, substantially raising privacy and civil‑liberties concerns.
Broad, technology‑neutral definitions (e.g., “other cryptographic information,” successor technologies) together with mandated scanning risk expansive interpretations and overcollection of unrelated personal data beyond current norms.
Locating, scanning, auditing, securing digital assets, training, reporting, and running working groups will impose significant compliance and administrative costs on agencies and custodial providers that may be borne by taxpayers or passed to customers.
Based on analysis of 8 sections of legislative text.
Federal agencies must scan seized or collected electronic evidence for cryptocurrency keys, secure discovered assets, conduct annual audits, follow technical standards, and expand forensic-tool purchases.
Official title: To establish requirements and oversight for digital assets in the custody of Federal agencies, and for other purposes.
Introduced September 8, 2026 by Darrell Issa · Last progress September 8, 2026
Requires federal agencies that collect, seize, or hold electronically stored information to search for cryptocurrency private keys and other digital-asset custody material, secure any discovered assets, and perform yearly audits of digital-asset custody and handling. Directs the Attorney General to publish technical standards, issue a binding directive to agencies, create training programs, form an interagency working group, and expand permissible forfeiture-fund purchases to include digital forensic tools.