The U.S. Treasury Department acknowledges that coin mixers have legitimate privacy uses and recommends establishing a safe harbor mechanism to temporarily freeze suspicious assets.

PANews reported on March 9th that, according to The Block, the U.S. Treasury Department acknowledged in a report submitted to Congress that cryptocurrency mixers can be used for legitimate financial privacy purposes. Legitimate users can use mixers to protect sensitive information regarding personal wealth, business payments, or charitable donations in public blockchain transactions. This represents a shift in stance since the 2022 sanctions against Tornado Cash. The report distinguishes between custodial and non-custodial mixers. Custodial mixers are already required to register with FinCEN as money services businesses, but it did not recommend new restrictions on non-custodial mixers, nor did it finalize or support the record-keeping rules for mixers proposed by FinCEN in 2023. Instead, it cited a report from the Presidential Task Force recommending that the Treasury Department "consider next steps" while balancing illicit financial risks with privacy concerns. The report also revealed that North Korean cybercriminals stole at least $2.8 billion in digital assets between January 2024 and September 2025, routinely using mixers for multi-step money laundering. Since May 2020, over $1.6 billion in deposits from mixing services have flowed into cross-chain bridges, with over $900 million concentrated on a bridge linked to North Korean money laundering. The Treasury Department recommended that Congress establish "hold laws" safe harbor mechanisms for digital assets, allowing financial institutions to temporarily freeze suspicious assets during short-term investigations, and clarifying the anti-money laundering obligations of DeFi participants. It also proposed adding a "sixth special measure" to the Patriot Act, authorizing the Treasury Department to impose restrictions on certain digital asset transfers.