Since California’s Digital Financial Assets Law (DFAL) went into full effect on July 1, 2026, and if you have not yet applied for the license before that date, California expects you to halt business activity until you obtain a license. A new DFAL completed application requires new steps to avoid penalties. The Transition Rule, in Plain…
If you handle personal data in the United States, you’re not dealing with one data breach law; you’re dealing with 50, plus the District of Columbia and several territories. As of 2026, there are new State Data Breach Notification Laws available. There’s still no single federal breach notification statute, so every company operating across state…
If your business moves money or cryptocurrency, the FinCEN Travel Rule is one of the most important (and most misunderstood) AML requirements you’ll encounter. Despite its name, it has nothing to do with travel; it requires certain customer information to “travel” with qualifying payments between financial institutions. What Is the FinCEN Travel Rule? The Travel…
If your business is registered with FinCEN as a Money Services Business, or if you operate a cryptocurrency exchange, Bitcoin ATM, payment processor, or wallet service, you are legally required to maintain a written Anti-Money Laundering compliance program under the Bank Secrecy Act. These are the five pillars of an AML compliance program. That program…
If you operate a cryptocurrency exchange, Bitcoin ATM network, payment processor, or any other business registered with FinCEN as a Money Services Business, there is a federal examination program specifically designed to audit your compliance, and the IRS runs it. It is called a Title 31 exam. Unlike a tax audit, most business owners don’t…
If you run a money services business (MSB) and you’ve heard the term “independent review” thrown around, you might be wondering: what exactly is it, who needs one, and what does it actually look at? With the crypto regulatory landscape shifting fast, independent reviews are quickly becoming the proof point regulators expect to see —…
A battery-powered hair dryer was pointed at a weather sensor at Charles de Gaulle Airport. A U.S. Army soldier with classified knowledge of a covert military operation. A class action accusing a federally regulated exchange of running an illegal sportsbook in fifty states. A teenager who downloaded a betting app on his eighteenth birthday and…
The uncomfortable truth about taxes, theft, and the narrow door the IRS just opened. TL;DR: For years, crypto scam losses were treated as non-deductible personal theft. In January 2025, the IRS Chief Counsel quietly changed the conversation. Now, whether your loss is deductible depends on a single question: did you transfer the funds with the…
The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, the bill that would, for the first time, give the U.S. crypto industry a comprehensive federal market-structure regime, has cleared its most consequential procedural hurdle. On May 14, 2026, the Senate Banking Committee advanced the bill in a bipartisan 15-9 vote, sending it toward the Senate floor for what…
Federal agencies increasingly use civil asset forfeiture procedures to seize or freeze digital assets, including USDT, USDC, Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies. In many cases, account holders first learn of the seizure through an exchange restriction, a frozen wallet, or a notice published on forfeiture.gov or sent by the Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”). Once notice is…