United States Congressman Tom Emmer despatched a four-page letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday concerning the Treasury Division’s sanctioning of cryptocurrency mixer Twister Money on Aug. 8. In his letter, Emmer posed a collection of questions that search to make clear the place of the Treasury Division’s Workplace of Overseas Property Management (OFAC).

Emmer stated that OFAC, acting underneath Govt Order 13694 to place Twister Money on its Specifically Designated Nationals and Blocked Individuals Record (SDN), has for the primary time prolonged the EO’s definition of particular person or particular person to incorporate code. He pointed to the excellence made by the Treasury’s Monetary Crimes Enforcement Community (FinCEN) between anonymizing providers and anonymizing software program for instance the problem he noticed in OFAC’s motion whereas acknowledging that OFAC just isn’t topic to FinCEN rules.

I despatched a letter to Treasury Secretary Yellen concerning the unprecedented sanctioning of Twister Money. The rising adoption of decentralized expertise will definitely increase new challenges for OFAC. Nonetheless, expertise is impartial and the expectation of privateness is regular.⬇️ pic.twitter.com/0aN4a4A6tb

— Tom Emmer (@RepTomEmmer) August 23, 2022

Emmer’s questions have been of a sensible nature. Noting that “Twister Money is a set of a number of Ethereum sensible contract addresses that aren’t managed by an individual (particular person or entity),” Emmer requested what individuals could possibly be related to these addresses and:

“Provided that the Twister Money back-end will function unchanged […] so long as the Ethereum community continues to function, who or what entity did OFAC imagine was fairly chargeable for imposing controls on the Twister Money blockchain contracts?”

Emmer went on to ask concerning the standing of funds belonging to law-abiding Twister Money customers and the way they will reclaim these funds and the way sensible contracts “with no company, company or private,” can attraction the OFAC determination.

Twister Money saga highlights authorized points affecting the crypto market

Emmer, a member of the Home of Representatives Monetary Providers Committee and co-chair of the Congressional Blockchain Caucus, is a extremely seen presence in crypto laws. He has in latest months criticized the Securities and Change Fee’s (SEC’s) coverage towards crypto firms, supported crypto miners earlier than the Environmental Safety Company (EPA) and co-sponsored the brand new model of the Digital Commodity Change Act (DCEA). He’s removed from alone in his dismay over the OFAC motion. Coin Middle has expressed the intention of difficult OFAC in court docket.