Crypto advocates file brief against SEC's investor tracking database
The DeFi Education Fund and the Blockchain Association jointly filed an amicus brief in a case brought by two individuals and the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA) against the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), its chairman Gary Gensler and the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT). The complaint does not mention cryptocurrency or blockchain, but the organizations argue that the CAT could have a profound negative effect on crypto users…
The NCLA said:
“This class-action complaint challenges SEC’s shocking arrogation of power to impose dystopian surveillance, suspicionless seizures, and real or potential searches on millions of American investors.”
The NCLA filed its suit in April. The case has attracted over 50 amicus curiae briefs. The DeFi Education Fund and the Blockchain Association said in their brief that the database exposes more information about investors using blockchains than it was designed to, due to the transparent nature of public blockchains. It explained:
“The CAT […] connects personally identifying information with wallet addresses that reveal blockchain-based user transactions. Thus, anyone with access to the CAT would be able to see not just a person’s securities transactions, […] but all of that person’s blockchain transactions in the past, present, and future.”
… The NCLA was also instrumental in bringing the case to the Supreme Court that led to the overturning of the Chevron deference.
August 23, 2024
Originally Published in Cointelegraph