Svmuu News The U.S. Treasury Department has submitted a 32-page report to Congress, stating that cryptocurrency mixers can serve legitimate financial privacy purposes, allowing users to protect sensitive information such as personal wealth, business payments, or charitable donations. This stance marks a shift from its position when sanctioning Tornado Cash in 2022.
The report reveals that North Korean cybercriminals stole at least $2.8 billion in digital assets between January 2024 and September 2025, including $1.5 billion from the Bybit hack, and routinely used mixers for multi-step money laundering. Since May 2020, over $1.6 billion in mixer deposits have flowed into cross-chain bridges, with more than $900 million concentrated in one bridge protocol linked to North Korean money laundering activities.
The report distinguishes between custodial and non-custodial mixers, noting that compliant custodial mixers can provide information such as customer identity and off-chain transaction data, but it does not recommend imposing new restrictions on non-custodial mixers.
Regarding legislative proposals, the report urges Congress to enact a specialized "freeze law" for digital assets, providing safe harbor protection for financial institutions to temporarily freeze suspicious assets during short-term investigations. It also recommends that Congress clarify which DeFi participants should bear anti-money laundering obligations. The report further proposes adding a "sixth special measure" to Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act, authorizing the Treasury Department to impose bans or restrictions on specific digital asset transmissions that do not involve correspondent banking relationships.
The report was prepared in accordance with Section 9 of the GENIUS Act signed in July 2025.