US pivots on crypto mixers, highlighting valid privacy application

[Yaunfitda]

What is everyone's take on this?



https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/246/GENIUS-Act-Illicit-Finance-Innovation-Congressional-Report-March-2026.pdf

As per their report to Congress this month, the secretary of Treasury identify the threats such as North Korea, ransomware actors, sanction evaders and others. However, they also mentioned that Mixers, that there are individuals who use it to protect their financial privacy as we don't like to be followed in blockchain. Does this signal that we might see US shift on their policy with regards to crypto mixer?

[UchihaSarada]

What is everyone's take on this?

https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/246/GENIUS-Act-Illicit-Finance-Innovation-Congressional-Report-March-2026.pdf

As per their report to Congress this month, the secretary of Treasury identify the threats such as North Korea, ransomware actors, sanction evaders and others. However, they also mentioned that Mixers, that there are individuals who use it to protect their financial privacy as we don't like to be followed in blockchain. Does this signal that we might see US shift on their policy with regards to crypto mixer?

TryNinja shared the report in Mixer restrictions yesterday and there is discussion goes on there where you can continue discussion about this newest legal regulation on mixers in the USA.

It's a big news and makes mixer industry more acceptable legally in the USA but there are restrictions too. It's hard to operate a mixer while the operator can control origin of coins from users and restrict users who have dirty coins. I don't know how it can be done with mixer operator so even it is a good news for mixer industry, the legal practice is still very vague.

[Alpen]

What is everyone's take on this?


As per their report to Congress this month, the secretary of Treasury identify the threats such as North Korea, ransomware actors, sanction evaders and others. However, they also mentioned that Mixers, that there are individuals who use it to protect their financial privacy as we don't like to be followed in blockchain. Does this signal that we might see US shift on their policy with regards to crypto mixer?

The US Treasury Secretary is simply covering for the president's shady dealings. They need mixers to hide family investments coming from the Middle East and other questionable sources.

If the Treasury has suddenly become a 'champion of privacy,' then why haven't they started with Monero and ZCash? Those coins are still banned from US exchanges, even though they offer far better privacy than any mixer.

Let me explain why mixers are a trap using my own experience. I once received BTC through a mixer. After the coins were 'shuffled,' the service sent the funds from random wallets that—surprise, surprise—turned out to be blacklisted addresses. Fortunately, I was using a Cryptomus custodial wallet, and they flagged and blocked the transfer immediately. If I had actually received those coins, I would be the one with the problem. Instead, the sender is the one stuck with frozen funds. That’s the reality of mixers

[FinneysTrueVision]

I don’t really see a pivot there. They wrote a report describing how people use mixers and said that custodial mixers are required to maintain records and report suspicious activity.

These requirements undermine mixers’ whole value proposition. Who in their right mind is going to upload their ID to a database and agree to have their activity monitored just so they can keep their financial data private?

[Ucy]

All the "justifiable" use for mixers listed in the box are most likely for users with compromised anonymity, better yet, users with their real identities exposed, otherwise there will be little to zero need to worry about those things when no one knows who you are.
If someone can determine who you are by your spending habits even though your identity is hidden, you could simply patronize sellers that generate new addresses for their customers, and it will become hard to determine what you are spending your bitcoins on but easy to expose and confisticate coins obtained immorally or through scams.

By the way, anonymitity compromises typically happen when the principles of Bitcoin is not adhered to by users, individuals or businesses, via kyc. This is a violation of part of Bitcoin principles on anonymous use of Bitcoin, or privacy in general but it's allowed to go on. If users real identities have to be included, it should be done through privacy preserving method that makes it almost impossible for anyone but the owners to have access to users real IDs

People like known activists who receive donation in bitcoins are the kind of users that would find it hard to avoid the anonymity compromise, therefore may deserve mixers, but I recommend mixers that have privacy-friendly ways of getting users who do something really bad demasked without ever having access to the users real IDs. And I believe mixers should be accountable to the Bitcoin Community. Governments should always go through the community to get such information (de-anoimized IDs)

[Rikafip]

Does this signal that we might see US shift on their policy with regards to crypto mixer?

Not really, becauuse mixers will have to register with FinCen( US bureau that deals with money laundering and other similar crimes) and report all suspicious transactions, and people who usually these services want to remain anonymous, meaning those kind of mixers will be pointless and no one in their right mind will use them.

[legiteum]

What needs to happen is something akin to the US Bank Secrecy Act that allows small transactions to stay anonymous and only applies scrutiny to very large transactions. Nobody is going to do money laundering or terrorism or criminal stuff with 5 dollars or 140 dollars, or even a few thousand dollars. The BSA creates a limit at $10,000 US after which transactions have higher scrutiny. That seems very sensible, and sounds like a compromise that will work for everybody.

The fact is that 95% of Bitcoin holders these days do so with some kind of app, ETF, or some other system that is personally identified just like any bank account would be. Not too many people want their life savings to end up in a landfill somewhere by accident, or want to be beaten with a $5 wrench to give up everything they've worked for all of their life.

To 99% of consumers, anonymous transactions don't make any sense for anything over $100 or so.

The US Treasury Secretary is simply covering for the president's shady dealings. They need mixers to hide family investments coming from the Middle East and other questionable sources.

I would hope the crypto industry doesn't keep hitching itself to Donald Trump like they did in 2024, because consumers may well turn against everything associated with  this extremely unpopular politician. If they keep going like this we can end up with a situation that will make the FTX fiasco look meaningless. The stuff Trump is doing right now with the corruption and robbing of individuals ($TrumpAndDump) is going to build up a lot of anger among voters eventually.

[Antotena]

I don’t really see a pivot there. They wrote a report describing how people use mixers and said that custodial mixers are required to maintain records and report suspicious activity.

These requirements undermine mixers’ whole value proposition. Who in their right mind is going to upload their ID to a database and agree to have their activity monitored just so they can keep their financial data private?

It's the audacity for US to think the world revolves around. They are like, if you must support and improve privacy, let us know you and how you want to improve the privacy and when there is need to investigate any suspicious activities about your customers, report them to us and we are going to prosecute them. Please I ask, why would anyone want to use mixers with such service? Where is the privacy when too much elongated noses knows what you were protecting from the public.

What if we put some resistance in a way to limit transaction for privacy to reduced the rate at which money laundering are done since that is what they fear. I believe there are legitimate mixers over there that will comply and anyone that doesn't have nothing to hide will still use their services regardless. Otherwise if this is what the call mixers, they can hold their privacy applications, they will get tired one day if they don't do what's necessary.

[Alpen]

It's the audacity for US to think the world revolves around. They are like, if you must support and improve privacy, let us know you and how you want to improve the privacy and when there is need to investigate any suspicious activities about your customers, report them to us and we are going to prosecute them. Please I ask, why would anyone want to use mixers with such service? Where is the privacy when too much elongated noses knows what you were protecting from the public.

What if we put some resistance in a way to limit transaction for privacy to reduced the rate at which money laundering are done since that is what they fear. I believe there are legitimate mixers over there that will comply and anyone that doesn't have nothing to hide will still use their services regardless. Otherwise if this is what the call mixers, they can hold their privacy applications, they will get tired one day if they don't do what's necessary.

Then why do crypto startups keep backing Trump and his party in the Congressional elections?

Personally, I’ll always remember the corruption of Ripple—they practically sold their soul to the White House just to please Trump. I’ve sold every last XRP and will never buy it again; in my eyes, they are traitors.

For the same reason, I won't touch BNB or work with Binance. I believe that once the Democrats return to the White House, these companies will finally get what they deserve. This crypto winter is going to be a long one. Only truly decentralized projects that don't throw money at election meddling will survive.

It’s ironic: America has become so weak that Tether alone holds more US debt than many developed nations. At this rate, it’s unclear who will be dictating the rules to the President. Though, some say Israel is already calling the shots for Trump

[Antotena]

It's the audacity for US to think the world revolves around. They are like, if you must support and improve privacy, let us know you and how you want to improve the privacy and when there is need to investigate any suspicious activities about your customers, report them to us and we are going to prosecute them. Please I ask, why would anyone want to use mixers with such service? Where is the privacy when too much elongated noses knows what you were protecting from the public.

What if we put some resistance in a way to limit transaction for privacy to reduced the rate at which money laundering are done since that is what they fear. I believe there are legitimate mixers over there that will comply and anyone that doesn't have nothing to hide will still use their services regardless. Otherwise if this is what the call mixers, they can hold their privacy applications, they will get tired one day if they don't do what's necessary.

Then why do crypto startups keep backing Trump and his party in the Congressional elections?

Personally, I’ll always remember the corruption of Ripple—they practically sold their soul to the White House just to please Trump. I’ve sold every last XRP and will never buy it again; in my eyes, they are traitors.

For the same reason, I won't touch BNB or work with Binance. I believe that once the Democrats return to the White House, these companies will finally get what they deserve. This crypto winter is going to be a long one. Only truly decentralized projects that don't throw money at election meddling will survive.

It’s ironic: America has become so weak that Tether alone holds more US debt than many developed nations. At this rate, it’s unclear who will be dictating the rules to the President. Though, some say Israel is already calling the shots for Trump

Until you learn to differentiate between crypto and Bitcoin. I learnt many shitcoiners were looking forward to get Trump recognition after he declared his fake support for Bitcoin, they donated money from foundation wallets to support his campaigns but smart Trump became president and he launched his own coins.

I don't blame the government for all this breadcrumbing behavior towards Bitcoin, it's because we gave them the attention and they know the people want the government approval so Bitcoin can go mainstream else I see no reason why they be given us this kind of conditions to use mixers they say to be everyone right. If it's right as they, let's people use it in moderate and not let it be some detectorship. There are plenty of ways the government can allow mixers to be use legally and reduce abusive behaviors but they will go for the option that will discourage people from using it.

[Satofan44]

The US Treasury Secretary is simply covering for the president's shady dealings. They need mixers to hide family investments coming from the Middle East and other questionable sources.

Enough with these pathethic conspiracy theories due to your uncontrollable envy of Trump and his family. They do not need mixers to do anything, they can use Monero easily. Therefore the dumb conspiracy is moot and has no relevance to this.

Let me explain why mixers are a trap using my own experience. I once received BTC through a mixer. After the coins were 'shuffled,' the service sent the funds from random wallets that—surprise, surprise—turned out to be blacklisted addresses. Fortunately, I was using a Cryptomus custodial wallet, and they flagged and blocked the transfer immediately. If I had actually received those coins, I would be the one with the problem. Instead, the sender is the one stuck with frozen funds. That’s the reality of mixers

You blame the gun because you shot yourself and didn't know how to use it, congratulations.

I don’t really see a pivot there. They wrote a report describing how people use mixers and said that custodial mixers are required to maintain records and report suspicious activity.

These requirements undermine mixers’ whole value proposition. Who in their right mind is going to upload their ID to a database and agree to have their activity monitored just so they can keep their financial data private?

Depends on why you are using the mixer and from who you are trying to hide. If you are trying to hide something from everyone else, and in a specific scenario that would be primarily the recipient of payments. Most people do not posses the knowledge or abilities that are required to keep a well organized and separated structure of their UTXOs. Mixers, even those that are owned by the government, would provide another way to deal with this problem. If you are doing this for your legally purchased, documented balance that the government already knows about, you are not losing anything by doing this. If you are doing this with coins that the government does not know you posses or where you hold them, only then do you lose something.

[Jwest]

Interesting update from the US Treasury, they’re finally acknowledging that crypto mixers can have legitimate privacy uses, not just for criminals. It makes sense, since public blockchains show everything, and some people or businesses may need privacy.
At the same time, regulators are still looking at ways to limit misuse, so it’s a balance. Curious what others think, does this signal a more privacy friendly approach for crypto in the US, or just a tweak to regulation?

[Alphakilo]

It's the audacity for US to think the world revolves around. They are like, if you must support and improve privacy, let us know you and how you want to improve the privacy and when there is need to investigate any suspicious activities about your customers, report them to us and we are going to prosecute them. Please I ask, why would anyone want to use mixers with such service? Where is the privacy when too much elongated noses knows what you were protecting from the public.

What if we put some resistance in a way to limit transaction for privacy to reduced the rate at which money laundering are done since that is what they fear. I believe there are legitimate mixers over there that will comply and anyone that doesn't have nothing to hide will still use their services regardless. Otherwise if this is what the call mixers, they can hold their privacy applications, they will get tired one day if they don't do what's necessary.

Then why do crypto startups keep backing Trump and his party in the Congressional elections?

Personally, I’ll always remember the corruption of Ripple—they practically sold their soul to the White House just to please Trump. I’ve sold every last XRP and will never buy it again; in my eyes, they are traitors.

For the same reason, I won't touch BNB or work with Binance. I believe that once the Democrats return to the White House, these companies will finally get what they deserve. This crypto winter is going to be a long one. Only truly decentralized projects that don't throw money at election meddling will survive.

It’s ironic: America has become so weak that Tether alone holds more US debt than many developed nations. At this rate, it’s unclear who will be dictating the rules to the President. Though, some say Israel is already calling the shots for Trump

Until you learn to differentiate between crypto and Bitcoin. I learnt many shitcoiners were looking forward to get Trump recognition after he declared his fake support for Bitcoin, they donated money from foundation wallets to support his campaigns but smart Trump became president and he launched his own coins.

I don't blame the government for all this breadcrumbing behavior towards Bitcoin, it's because we gave them the attention and they know the people want the government approval so Bitcoin can go mainstream else I see no reason why they be given us this kind of conditions to use mixers they say to be everyone right. If it's right as they, let's people use it in moderate and not let it be some detectorship. There are plenty of ways the government can allow mixers to be use legally and reduce abusive behaviors but they will go for the option that will discourage people from using it.

This move by the Treasury shows the presence of human errors which can't be ignored because individuals make the move to suggest to the government how this would be beneficial and then see how removing mixers exposes them to wrench attacks and make them targets by corrupt government officials.
I really don't know what to say besides that this is a shift from obstruction to oversight. This is a conditional shift that says that mixers are important and instead of banning them, better policies and credentials should be created and used to facilitate the efficiency of the application of mixers.

[legiteum]

Enough with these pathethic conspiracy theories due to your uncontrollable envy of Trump and his family. They do not need mixers to do anything, they can use Monero easily. Therefore the dumb conspiracy is moot and has no relevance to this.

If mixers aren't necessary since one can just use Monero or something like it, then we should we care about mixers at all? Why care about how the technology is regulated?

To be clear, I totally agree: mixers are useless. I personally don't care about regulations on mixers since I'll never use one.

I was, however, happy to see the US regulatory system acknowledging the value of consumer privacy, and them acknowledging that privacy, particularly for small value transactions, is a valuable thing for consumers and not always simply a means of money laundering or tax evasion or worse.

[Catenaccio]

To be clear, I totally agree: mixers are useless. I personally don't care about regulations on mixers since I'll never use one.

I was, however, happy to see the US regulatory system acknowledging the value of consumer privacy, and them acknowledging that privacy, particularly for small value transactions, is a valuable thing for consumers and not always simply a means of money laundering or tax evasion or worse.

If they're useless, they would have not existed for years and attracted more attention as well as regulations from governments. It is different with most of useless altcoins that automatically die with time, and governments don't need to do any regulations to make such altcoin projects die.

Mixers are different, as they are helpful for people who need them, and as we see in reports, demand on mixers is huge enough. So this branch industry in cryptocurrency will continue to be under regulatory radars of governments. I believe that a general trend with time is more and stricter regulations on mixer industry. In short time like this, perhaps the USA under Trump administration will loosen regulations on it a little bit but next Presidents might do oppositely and tighten regulations again.

[legiteum]

To be clear, I totally agree: mixers are useless. I personally don't care about regulations on mixers since I'll never use one.

I was, however, happy to see the US regulatory system acknowledging the value of consumer privacy, and them acknowledging that privacy, particularly for small value transactions, is a valuable thing for consumers and not always simply a means of money laundering or tax evasion or worse.

If they're useless, they would have not existed for years and attracted more attention as well as regulations from governments. It is different with most of useless altcoins that automatically die with time, and governments don't need to do any regulations to make such altcoin projects die.

Mixers are different, as they are helpful for people who need them, and as we see in reports, demand on mixers is huge enough. So this branch industry in cryptocurrency will continue to be under regulatory radars of governments. I believe that a general trend with time is more and stricter regulations on mixer industry. In short time like this, perhaps the USA under Trump administration will loosen regulations on it a little bit but next Presidents might do oppositely and tighten regulations again.

Well, I guess "useless" is too strong. But the poster above is correct in saying that there are alternative methods to accomplish the same things that mixers accomplish...