Coin Center

Jerry BritoJerry BritoJerry Brito is a technology policy researcher, co-founder and board member of Coin Center, and its executive director from 2014 through 2024. Previously, he directed technology policy research at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center. His work addresses Bitcoin, financial regulation, payment privacy, open-source software and civil liberties. He also co-hosts the books podcast Worker & Parasite.Open the full entry and Robin WeismanRobin WeismanRobin Weisman, also known as Robin Mahler Weisman, is a lawyer working on financial-market and cryptocurrency policy and a co-founder and board member of Coin Center. She previously served as Nasdaq’s director of government relations and Coin Center’s senior policy counsel.Open the full entry co-founded Coin Center. In a 2024 tenth-anniversary reflection, Brito described its initial goal as securing room for Bitcoin to develop and limiting harmful policy interventions. Both founders subsequently remained on its board.⁠[2][1]

When launching its website, Coin Center described itself as an educational and research institution for blockchain technology, advocating freedom to innovate rather than representing a particular company, industry or currency. Brito outlined research, policy engagement and public education, while seeking a broader base of supporters.⁠[3]

Coin Center submitted comments criticizing the short consultation period and additional recordkeeping requirements in FinCEN’s unhosted-wallet proposal. It argued that requiring financial institutions to record counterparty names and addresses for crypto transactions above $3,000 would impose a different standard from traditional payments and collect information about noncustomers.⁠[4]

Coin Center announced litigation challenging the amendment to Internal Revenue Code Section 6050I in the 2021 infrastructure legislation. Its claims concerned reporting by direct counterparties and disclosure of donors’ identities, which it argued infringed privacy and freedom of association. These were the plaintiffs’ constitutional arguments.⁠[5]

Coin Center and other plaintiffs sued over Treasury’s Tornado Cash sanctions, arguing that immutable smart contracts should be distinguished from sanctioned foreign persons or entities and that restrictions on privacy tools burdened private donations and association. Its announcement set out arguments concerning statutory authority, administrative procedure and associational freedom.⁠[6]

Responding to FinCEN’s proposal to classify international convertible-virtual-currency mixing as a primary money-laundering concern, Coin Center argued that the definition was too broad and could capture legitimate privacy transactions. It questioned how institutions could establish transaction jurisdiction and called for clearer limits and procedural protections.⁠[7]

Brito announced that he would step down as executive director at year-end and that Weisman would leave her senior policy counsel role, with both remaining directors. The announcement named Peter Van Valkenburgh as executive director from January 1, 2025; the website continued to list him in that role in October 2026.⁠[2][1]

Van Valkenburgh stated publicly that Coin Center’s court battle over the statutory authority behind the Tornado Cash sanctions had ended, thanking its co-plaintiffs. His statement concerned the organization’s sanctions challenge and did not establish the outcome of separate criminal proceedings involving developers.⁠[8][9]

Coin Center discussed fellow Michael Lewellen’s Fifth Circuit case seeking clarity before launching Pharos, noncustodial crowdfunding software. The organization argued that a Justice Department memo on enforcement priorities could not replace judicial clarification of money-transmission law. The case was at the appeal stage discussed in the article.⁠[9]

FinCEN announced the withdrawal of its 2020 unhosted-wallet proposal and its 2023 convertible-virtual-currency mixing proposal. The two withdrawal notices identify October 6 as their Federal Register publication date. Coin Center welcomed the announcement as a financial-privacy victory. The action concerned proposed rules, not the repeal of all existing anti-money-laundering obligations.⁠[10][11][12][13]

Policy director Jason Somensatto discussed Benjamin Rogovy’s tax case and whether possession of private keys alone established taxable receipt of forked assets that the holder had not affirmatively claimed. Coin Center argued that control, acceptance and technical barriers also mattered. The article awaited the court’s outcome rather than reporting a final decision adopting its position.⁠[14]

Coin Center emphasizes the rights to write, publish, read and run code and to participate privately in peer-to-peer networks. Its unhosted-wallet comments distinguish financial institutions’ customers from counterparties who have not voluntarily supplied information to those institutions, explaining its objection to expanding financial reporting.⁠[1][4]

Coin Center: Official website: https://coincenter.org/ (opens in a new window).⁠[1]

Coin Center: Official account: https://x.com/coincenter (opens in a new window).⁠[1]

Coin Center: Official account: https://www.linkedin.com/company/coin-center/ (opens in a new window).⁠[15]