- Galaxy warns a U.S. crypto bill could massively expand financial surveillance, rivaling the Patriot Act.
- Critics fear DeFi platforms may be forced to freeze transactions without court orders.
Galaxy Digital, a crypto company, says that the new U.S. crypto bill, which is being discussed in the Senate, could give the U.S. government very strong powers to watch and freeze crypto activity. It says that these powers are as serious as the surveillance laws passed after 9/11.
Why Galaxy Warns the Crypto Bill Could Trigger Patriot Act–Level Surveillance
The Galaxy is worried about the new Act because the draft bill would allow law enforcement to hold the transactions and request that law enforcement pause or freeze the crypto transfers without the judge’s approval or court order. This makes it much easier to freeze funds quickly for stablecoin users, crypto service providers, and DeFi frontend operators.
The bill has introduced the idea of a “distributed ledger application layer,” which means DeFi apps and websites should follow the strict money tracking and reporting rules even though they don’t control users’ funds and often provide software.
Galaxy believes that this bill expands financial surveillance and pushes crypto closer to constant monitoring, which could reduce the users’ privacy a lot. That is why Galaxy compares it to a patriotic Act, which increased government monitoring after the terrorist attacks.
Crypto is growing everywhere in payments, payroll, and business operations. So the lawmakers want stronger tools to fight money laundering, sanctions evasion, and illicit finance. The goal of the bill is not to ban crypto, but to control and enforce it.
The Crypto industries are saying that, after the Act, privacy and compliance are the core conflict. Business needs confidentiality, but the regulators want auditability. Developers worry they will be forced into surveillance roles. Galaxy warns that the bill goes far towards control, which could hurt DeFi, Stablecoins, and Crypto innovations in the U.S. This shows that there is a major fight going to rise in the U.S. over crypto regulations.
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