Why a16z Opposes Secretary Mnuchin’s FinCEN Midnight Crypto Rulemaking

Katie Haun

Blockchain-based systems hold enormous promise to deliver innovative products and services to the global financial system, including for those who have historically existed outside it or at its margins. Achieving this promise requires, among other things, a set of well-reasoned regulations that reflect the complexity of this evolving technology.

Instead, the Treasury Department’s FinCEN proposed a rushed, non-vetted rule under the cloak of the holidays that violates the government’s own established rulemaking procedures. The new rule, ostensibly aimed at fighting financial crime, would require various cryptocurrency entities to collect and report detailed personal identifiable information of their customers’ counterparties, a standard applied to no other sector of the financial industry today. Such an ill-advised regulation will have many foreseeable and unintended negative consequences.

Instead of proposing a regulation that is based on reliable facts and evidence of regulatory need, that recognizes the difficult tradeoffs in regulating crypto activities, and that embraces the benefits of crypto to actually assist in the fight against financial crime, FinCEN has proposed at the eleventh hour of an outgoing administration a rule that has all the hallmarks of an arbitrary and capricious agency action. It fails to solve the challenges it purports to address, violates the Fourth Amendment by expanding the reach of the Bank Secrecy Act, sweeps in commercial activity beyond its stated focus of self-hosted wallets, and is drafted in such a way as to guarantee uneven application. All of this without even acknowledging all the negative impacts and while bypassing the standard rulemaking processes.

For these reasons, today we filed this response urging FinCEN to withdraw its proposed rule or at a minimum extend the comment period so that it can engage in a meaningful consultation with the crypto industry about topics that are important to the future of the U.S. economy.

Listen to a16z General Partner Katie Haun and Operating Partner Anthony Albanese discussing the FinCEN proposal on the 16 Minutes podcast:

###

The views expressed here are those of the individual AH Capital Management, L.L.C. (“a16z”) personnel quoted and are not the views of a16z or its affiliates. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources, including from portfolio companies of funds managed by a16z. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, a16z has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation. In addition, this content may include third-party advertisements; a16z has not reviewed such advertisements and does not endorse any advertising content contained therein. 

This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only, and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Furthermore, this content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors, and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest in any fund managed by a16z. (An offering to invest in an a16z fund will be made only by the private placement memorandum, subscription agreement, and other relevant documentation of any such fund and should be read in their entirety.) Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in vehicles managed by a16z, and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results. A list of investments made by funds managed by Andreessen Horowitz (excluding investments for which the issuer has not provided permission for a16z to disclose publicly as well as unannounced investments in publicly traded digital assets) is available at https://a16z.com/investments/.

Charts and graphs provided within are for informational purposes solely and should not be relied upon when making any investment decision. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The content speaks only as of the date indicated. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects, and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others. Please see https://a16z.com/disclosures for additional important information.