WASHINGTON — Republican lawmakers are looking at ways to ensure that the world of cryptocurrency and digital assets are free of government surveillance — and stay that way.
Utah Sen. Mike Lee co-introduced legislation this week that would block the federal government from having access to and surveillance of transactions in the digital asset ecosystem. The Keep Your Coins Act would codify what has long been a cornerstone of the digital asset world, Lee said, which is the belief that individuals should have the ability to keep their digital money in a digital wallet only they control.
“Americans deserve to keep their crypto assets where they choose – not where they’ve been forced by the federal government,” Lee said in a statement. “Washington’s dragnet-style surveillance has eroded the financial privacy of law-abiding Americans for decades. I’m proud to join Senator Budd’s Keep Your Coins Act to protect Americans’ privacy and ability to maintain self-custody of crypto assets.”
The bill would prohibit any federal agency from enacting rules dictating how individuals can use their digital assets and block efforts to require third-party organizations or banks from facilitating those transactions. In doing so, the lawmakers argue, it would ensure the cryptocurrency world remains a “decentralized ecosystem.”
“If cryptocurrencies are going to be digital cash, we need to protect a person’s right to hold their digital cash however they want,” Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C., who introduced the bill, said in a statement. “I urge my colleagues to support this common-sense legislation to ensure financial freedom for the digital asset ecosystem.”
The bill comes amid a larger conversation among Republican lawmakers to block the federal government from getting involved in the digital asset world.
The House passed a bill on Thursday to ban the Federal Reserve from issuing any central bank digital currency directly to individuals as a way to prohibit the federal government from having a way to monitor or control those assets. The bill passed in a 219-210 vote.
Those bills, along with other proposals, are part of Republican arguments that the government should not have any oversight over individuals’ digital money.