Research status, 2026-10-09 (Part 2 of 2)

8. Appendix: every claim marked unverified, contested, fringe or Spark-rejected

Generated from the notes as they stood after the fixes in § 5. Each entry gives the file, the line where the paragraph starts, the labels found, and the paragraph cut to 300 characters, with link targets removed. Open the file at that line for the full text and its sources. 540 entries: 423 unverified (including "unconfirmed" and "not confirmed"), 109 contested or disputed, 42 fringe and 4 Spark-rejected; some carry more than one label.

Notes

notes/2026-10-09-books.md (26)

• L25 [CONTESTED/UNVERIFIED] 3 · Kings of Crypto: One Startup's Quest to Take Cryptocurrency Out of Silicon Valley and onto Wall Street · Jeff John Roberts (Fortune technology writer; his first book) · 15 Dec 2020 · Harvard Business Review Press · Coinbase from its 2012 Y Combinator start to a major exchange: funding, …
• L30 [UNVERIFIED] 8 · Bitcoin Billionaires: A True Story of Genius, Betrayal, and Redemption · Ben Mezrich · 21 May 2019 · Flatiron Books (US); Little, Brown (UK) · The Winklevoss twins after their Facebook settlement: backing Charlie Shrem's BitInstant, buying bitcoin early, splitting their private key into …
• L41 [CONTESTED] 10 · Hijacking Bitcoin: The Hidden History of BTC · Roger Ver with Steve Patterson · 2024 (out by March 2024) · Self-published · The same block-size war told by the big-block side. Its case is that Bitcoin was designed as cash for payments, and that a small developer group, chiefly people …
• L42 [CONTESTED/UNVERIFIED] 11 · The Mysterious Mr. Nakamoto (subtitle not confirmed) · Benjamin Wallace (wrote Wired's 2011 Bitcoin feature) · 18 Mar 2025 · Crown · The author's years-long hunt for Satoshi. He surveys the usual candidates (Szabo, Back, Finney) and people who claimed to be Satoshi, and uses a home-made …
• L43 [CONTESTED] 12 · Bitcoin: The Future of Money? · Dominic Frisby (UK financial writer and comedian) · 2014; republished 2025 by Booksmith · Unbound · A lay introduction plus a long chapter hunting for Satoshi, which points at Nick Szabo (CONTESTED). Szabo told Frisby by email in July 2014 that he …
• L44 [FRINGE/UNVERIFIED] 13 · The Secret Life: Three True Stories of the Digital Age · Andrew O'Hagan · 2017 · Faber & Faber (unverified) · One of its three stories expands O'Hagan's 2016 London Review of Books essay "The Satoshi Affair". He spent weeks with Craig Wright while Wright's backers prepared to …
• L45 [FRINGE/UNVERIFIED] 14 · Satoshi's Vision (other listings add The Art of Bitcoin, unverified) · Craig S. Wright (Open Library also lists Paul Democritou) · 2019 · Independently published · Wright's account of Bitcoin's design as he claims Satoshi meant it. · FRINGE: written by a man the UK High Court …
• L49 [UNVERIFIED] 18 · The Cryptopians: Idealism, Greed, Lies, and the Making of the First Big Cryptocurrency Craze (subtitle per catalogue; unverified) · Laura Shin · 22 Feb 2022 · PublicAffairs · Mainly Ethereum's founding and the 2016 DAO hack, with Bitcoin as background. · Journalistic. · Kirkus: detailed …
• L53 [CONTESTED] 22 · The Politics of Bitcoin: Software as Right-Wing Extremism · David Golumbia (Virginia Commonwealth Univ.; d. 2023) · 26 Sep 2016 · University of Minnesota Press (Forerunners series, ~100 pp.) · Argues that Bitcoin's ideology comes from far-right and cyberlibertarian thought, and traces …
• L54 [CONTESTED] 23 · The Sovereign Individual (later subtitle Mastering the Transition to the Information Age) · James Dale Davidson and William Rees-Mogg · 1997 (Touchstone reissue 1999; 2020 reprint) · Simon & Schuster / Macmillan (per Open Library) · Forecasts that the internet would weaken …
• L80 [CONTESTED/UNVERIFIED] Satoshi is Nick Szabo · Dominic Frisby (2014 book); Nathaniel Popper in a 2015 NYT article (per Wikipedia); a Kings of Crypto passage (as quoted on Hacker News; unverified against the book) · Szabo has always denied it, including by email to Frisby; Frisby concedes there is no proof · …
• L81 [FRINGE] Satoshi is Craig Wright · Wright himself; his backers; O'Hagan's account records the attempt without endorsing it · UK High Court, COPA v Wright [2024] EWHC 1198 (Ch), 20 May 2024 (Mellor J): Wright is not Satoshi and his documents were forged · FRINGE (rejected by a court) · [49] [50] …
• L82 [CONTESTED/UNVERIFIED] Satoshi is James A. Donald · Benjamin Wallace's 2025 New York magazine excerpt · Circumstantial and stylometric only. Kirkus says the book's own thesis is a team. Donald's position is (unverified). · CONTESTED · [41] [42]
• L83 [CONTESTED] Satoshi was a team · Wallace's book, per Kirkus · Everyone named denies it, per Kirkus · CONTESTED · [41]
• L84 [CONTESTED] Satoshi is Peter Todd · HBO documentary Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery (Cullen Hoback, Oct 2024), not a book · Todd denied it. Per Wallace's excerpt, the Bitcoin community reacted with scepticism and anger. · CONTESTED · [42] [75]
• L85 [CONTESTED] Satoshi is Adam Back · YouTube channel Barely Sociable (2020); also discussed in Money Electric · Back denies it · CONTESTED · [75]
• L86 [CONTESTED] Bitcoin was "hijacked" by a small developer group (Blockstream / Core) · Roger Ver and Steve Patterson, Hijacking Bitcoin · Bier's Blocksize War tells the opposite story. Adam Back rejects it. Vitalik grants some of Ver's strategic points but backs Bier on technical ones. · CONTESTED · …
• L87 [CONTESTED] Fiat money caused cultural decline, the rise of fascism and WWII; Keynes caused the Depression · Saifedean Ammous, The Bitcoin Standard · Cato Journal calls these historically inaccurate; Reason and the Central Bank of Barbados review make similar points · CONTESTED (critics call parts …
• L88 [CONTESTED] Bitcoin's politics are right-wing extremism · David Golumbia, The Politics of Bitcoin · Michael Munger, Independent Review: guilt by association and misreading of the thinkers cited · CONTESTED · [68] [69]
• L89 [CONTESTED] The Sovereign Individual predicted Bitcoin · Crypto advocates (for example Naval Ravikant and Brian Armstrong recommend it) · It describes generic "cybermoney" eleven years before Bitcoin, not Bitcoin's design; Wikipedia notes only a resemblance · CONTESTED (framing) · [71]
• L116 [UNVERIFIED] Fact dropped by its quote check (the only one): a Goodreads reader review of The Bitcoin Standard that praised the first four chapters as a strong survey of things used as money and of how economists' views on monetary policy changed. Spark dropped it because it could not find the quoted …
• L142 [CONTESTED] It labelled three sub-answers CONTESTED: reviewers' views of the reliability of Digital Gold, The Book of Satoshi and The Bitcoin Standard. Its own verifier marked three claims "not supported by the cited evidence": that reviewers rate Digital Gold as unreliable, a related rating …
• L250 [UNVERIFIED] Kings of Crypto: only one professional review (Publishers Weekly) found. How much access Roberts had to Coinbase is (unverified). The Szabo passage is known only from a Hacker News quote.
• L254 [UNVERIFIED] Bitcoin Billionaires: did not see the book's front matter, so it is unconfirmed whether Mezrich notes recreated dialogue or composite scenes.
• L256 [UNVERIFIED] The Mysterious Mr. Nakamoto: NYT review not readable (blocked). Kirkus (team thesis) and Wallace's own excerpt (James A. Donald as prime suspect) point in different directions; reconcile by reading the book. Subtitle not confirmed.
• L265 [CONTESTED] Spark run on this topic had not finished when this note was first written. It finished later the same day, and its report's rejected and contested items are now summarised at the end of section 5 (completeness check). The text of the pages it read was not available, only their URLs and outcomes.

notes/2026-10-09-hacks-causes-defenses.md (36)

• L3 [FRINGE/CONTESTED/UNVERIFIED] *Study note, 2026-10-09. This is defensive research only. It covers causes, outcomes and defences, with no exploit code, attack procedures or tooling. Amounts are given at the value reported at the time unless stated. Anything not confirmed against a source fetched for this note is marked …
• L13 [UNVERIFIED] Mt. Gox price crash and account theft · 2011-06-19 · accounts worth >$8.75M affected · an auditor's account credentials; the user database leaked · compromised credentials on an insider's computer; no anomaly limits on trading · exchange carried on; no prosecution identified for this event …
• L15 [UNVERIFIED] Bitstamp · 2015-01-04 · <19,000 BTC (~$5M) · hot-wallet file and passphrase on a server · spear-phishing of staff (per a leaked report, unverified) · exchange reopened about a week later; no arrests known (unverified)
• L19 [UNVERIFIED] Binance · 2019-05-07 · 7,000 BTC (~$40M) · user API keys, 2FA codes, hot wallet · phishing and malware against users, then withdrawals timed to pass checks (Binance's account, unverified) · covered from Binance's own funds (SAFU); no arrests known (unverified)
• L47 [CONTESTED] In February 2014 Mt. Gox blamed transaction malleability, a then-unfixed Bitcoin quirk that let a transaction's ID be altered before confirmation ([Wikipedia: Mt. Gox][wp-gox]). Decker and Wattenhofer analysed a year of network data and found that "there was no widespread use of malleability …
• L49 [UNVERIFIED] In June 2023 US prosecutors in the Southern District of New York unsealed charges against Russian nationals Alexey Bilyuchenko and Aleksandr Verner. They allegedly gained unauthorised access to a Mt. Gox server holding wallet keys and drained at least 647,000 BTC from 2011 to 2014, …
• L58 [UNVERIFIED] Date and loss. Service was suspended in January 2015 after a hack in which "less than 19,000 bitcoins" were stolen ([Wikipedia: Bitstamp][wp-bitstamp]), about $5M (headlines of [Fortune 2015-01-05][fortune-bitstamp] and [ZDNet][zdnet-bitstamp]). The often-quoted figure of 18,866 BTC is …
• L59 [UNVERIFIED] What was compromised and the root cause. A confidential incident report dated 2015-02-20 leaked online. As discussed publicly, it described weeks of targeted phishing of Bitstamp staff by email and Skype, including a Word attachment with a malicious macro. The compromise reached a server …
• L60 [UNVERIFIED] Afterwards. Bitstamp resumed service about a week later ([NYT DealBook headline, 2015-01-09][nyt-bitstamp]). No arrests are known (unverified).
• L68 [UNVERIFIED] Bitfinex used BitGo multi-signature security, yet the theft still succeeded ([Wikipedia: Bitfinex][wp-bitfinex]). Multisig does not help once an attacker controls enough of the approval path, here the credentials Bitfinex itself used to sign. How the BitGo co-signing limits were bypassed is not …
• L88 [UNVERIFIED] (unverified) in primary form: Coincheck's own press-conference statements and the FSA order were not fetched.
• L89 [CONTESTED/UNVERIFIED] Some reporting attributed the theft to North Korea; that attribution is contested and unverified.
• L94 [UNVERIFIED] Defences that would have helped. Cold storage for most assets, multisig even on hot wallets, separate machines for email and for signing, and blocking email attachments on administrator machines. Japan later required exchanges to keep customer crypto mostly in cold wallets. FTX's …
• L106 [FRINGE/UNVERIFIED] Afterwards. The trustee declared a first interim dividend of about C$40M in March 2023 ([Wikipedia: QuadrigaCX][wp-quadriga]). Customers' lawyers asked for Cotten's body to be exhumed. Claims that he faked his death are a fringe theory, unverified ([Wikipedia: QuadrigaCX][wp-quadriga]).
• L116 [UNVERIFIED] Root cause. Binance said the attackers used phishing, viruses and other attacks on users to collect credentials, then withdrew from the hot wallet, which held about 2% of its BTC, in a way that passed its security checks. That account comes from Binance's announcement, which was not fetched …
• L117 [UNVERIFIED] Afterwards. The loss was covered by Binance's Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) ([TechCrunch][tc-binance]). No arrests are known (unverified).
• L125 [UNVERIFIED] Wikipedia reports that the Second Circuit affirmed the conviction on 2026-06-12 and that he petitioned the Supreme Court in September 2026 ([Wikipedia: Sam Bankman-Fried][wp-sbf]). This is (unverified against the court record).
• L129 [UNVERIFIED] How those defendants' cases ended is unverified.
• L155 [CONTESTED/UNVERIFIED] Wikipedia states that Bybit "was able to recover most of the stolen Ethereum". This is contested/unverified: Bybit restored its reserves mainly by borrowing and buying, not by recovering the stolen coins.
• L157 [CONTESTED] LuBian mining pool, December 2020: about 127,000 BTC (contested).
• L160 [CONTESTED/UNVERIFIED] Contested and unverified on both sides. Neither article body could be fetched.
• L178 [UNVERIFIED] Physical danger. Ledger co-founder David Balland and his wife were kidnapped in Vierzon, France, on 2025-01-21; his finger was severed before police (GIGN) rescued them ([Lopp list][lopp], citing Le Monde). The link between the 2020 leak and specific physical attacks is widely asserted but …
• L214 [UNVERIFIED] (unverified): the letter was not fetched. The summary itself gives the period as 2020, while contemporary headlines say "this spring" in 2021 ([Crypto Briefing headline][cb-coinbase]).
• L222 [UNVERIFIED] Arrest. CEO Brian Armstrong announced around 2025-12-26 that a former customer-service agent had been arrested in India ([Breitbart, citing Bloomberg][bb-coinbase-arrest]). Details are (unverified).
• L244 [UNVERIFIED] When compliance took effect is unverified.
• L272 [UNVERIFIED] Examples. In February 2019 ESET found the first clipper on Google Play, posing as MetaMask and replacing copied Bitcoin and Ethereum addresses ([ESET WeLiveSecurity 2019-02-08][eset]). In 2017 Kaspersky reported a Windows clipper, "CryptoShuffler", that had collected about 23 BTC …
• L282 [UNVERIFIED] Bitcoin. The technique matters less on Bitcoin, where wallets usually use a new address each time and do not show payee history the same way. It is not impossible there (unverified frequency).
• L310 [UNVERIFIED] "Milk Sad" (CVE-2023-39910). The bx seed command in Libbitcoin Explorer 3.x used a weak random-number generator (Mersenne Twister). Thefts were seen in July 2023 ([milksad.info][milksad]). The size of the losses is unverified.
• L311 [CONTESTED] LuBian (2020) was allegedly also a weak key-generation case (contested; §2.9).
• L323 [UNVERIFIED] France has become a centre of such attacks. Headlines in 2026 give differing tallies, for example "41 cases in 2026" and "77 crypto kidnappings and extortions since January" ([Yahoo headline][yahoo-fr-41]; [Yahoo headline][yahoo-fr-77]). These are (unverified; article bodies not read).
• L334 [CONTESTED/UNVERIFIED] Contested: Pavel Durov alleged that leaks from French tax-authority data feed kidnappings in France. This is an allegation (unverified) ([Cointelegraph headline][ct-durov]).
• L432 [UNVERIFIED] North Korea as the Coincheck thief: reported suspicion, unverified.
• L433 [UNVERIFIED] Bybit "recovered most" of the stolen ETH (Wikipedia wording): doubtful; Bybit replaced reserves rather than recovering the coins (unverified).
• L434 [CONTESTED] LuBian 2020 theft and China's CVERC claim that the US government took the coins: contested allegation; the US calls them fraud proceeds.
• L435 [FRINGE] Gerald Cotten faked his death: fringe theory, no evidence in the OSC review.
• L439 [UNVERIFIED] Bitstamp attack details: from a leaked, unconfirmed report.

notes/2026-10-09-patents.md (42)

• L7 [UNVERIFIED] How this was checked. Patent facts (number, title, inventors, assignee, dates, status, expiry, claim 1, litigation flags) come from each patent's Google Patents page, read on 2026-10-09. Full PDFs of 39 US patents and applications, plus two court documents and an NSA licensing statement, are …
• L22 [UNVERIFIED] Bitcoin itself is not patented. I found no patent or application filed by "Satoshi Nakamoto" (a search for an absence, so unverified). The building blocks Bitcoin uses (Merkle trees, chained time-stamps, SHA-256, elliptic-curve and Schnorr signatures) were patented decades ago, and all …
• L25 [FRINGE] The most important live patent fight is about Bitcoin's cryptography itself. Since May 2025, Malikie Innovations, which bought BlackBerry's old patents including Certicom's elliptic-curve ones, has been suing large Bitcoin miners (Core Scientific, MARA). Malikie says running Bitcoin's …
• L53 [UNVERIFIED] US 4,759,063 · "Blind signature systems": David Chaum (later DigiCash and its successors) · 1983-08-22 → 1988-07-19 · Expired 2005 · A signer can sign a message without seeing it, so the signature cannot be traced back to the request. This was the basis of DigiCash's private e-cash. · This was …
• L54 [CONTESTED/UNVERIFIED] US 4,995,082 · Schnorr signatures: Claus P. Schnorr; later assigned to Public Key Partners · 1990-02-23 → 1991-02-19 · Expired (anticipated 2010-02-23) · A compact digital-signature and identification scheme, now called Schnorr signatures. · It was still in force when Bitcoin launched in January …
• L68 [FRINGE] "The King–Oksman–Bry patent shows who Satoshi was" (fringe). US patent application US 2010/0042841 A1, "Updating and Distributing Encryption Keys", was filed on 2008-08-15 by Neal King, Vladimir Oksman and Charles Bry and later assigned to Infineon and Lantiq.
• L79 [FRINGE] "SHA-256 is an NSA patent, so Bitcoin has an NSA back door" (fringe). The patent is the NSA's (see §1). But the algorithm is a public standard, the NSA released the patent royalty-free in 2007, and I found no evidence of a back door in SHA-256. A patent discloses how something works; it does …
• L82 [FRINGE/CONTESTED/UNVERIFIED] "Satoshi chose secp256k1 and ECDSA to stay clear of patents and NSA-chosen curves" (contested, unverified). This is often said, but I found no statement by Satoshi. It is ironic given §3.1: Malikie now argues that Bitcoin's ECDSA use infringes Certicom patents.
• L113 [FRINGE] Malikie v. MARA Holdings (formerly Marathon Digital): filed in the Western District of Texas. An amended complaint was reported on 2025-07-24 (Block Tribune).
• L117 [FRINGE] It alleges wilful infringement after MARA ignored licensing notices sent in March and April 2025.
• L118 [UNVERIFIED] Case number not found (unverified).
• L128 [UNVERIFIED] US 8,522,286 · listed by Block Tribune · — · — · (unverified): Google Patents shows US 8,522,286 as an LG digital-TV patent, so the reported number is probably a typo.
• L131 [FRINGE] This is the first wave of suits claiming that running standard Bitcoin software infringes, rather than some company-specific feature.
• L133 [FRINGE] Every one of the listed patents was expired by 2026-10-09, so Malikie cannot get an order stopping anyone. But US law allows damages for infringement during the six years before suit (35 U.S.C. § 286), which reaches back to about 2019.
• L139 [UNVERIFIED] Open questions (unverified): whether ordinary node operators or wallet users are at risk; prior-art defences (Bitcoin's public-key recovery and secp256k1 code trace back to the open-source libsecp256k1 project).
• L147 [FRINGE] Lancium v. Layer1 Technologies (W.D. Tex. No. 6:20-cv-00739) · US 10,608,433, "Adjusting power consumption based on a fixed-duration power option agreement" (Lancium; filed 2019-12-04, granted 2020-03-31). In plain words: computing loads such as miners that scale up and down to match a …
• L148 [UNVERIFIED] BearBox LLC & Austin Storms v. Lancium (D. Del. No. 21-534) · Same '433 patent · Storms said he disclosed the idea to Lancium's Michael McNamara at a May 2019 conference and should be named the inventor. On 2022-01-18 the magistrate judge recommended dismissing the state-law claims …
• L149 [FRINGE/UNVERIFIED] Midas Green Technologies v. Rhodium Enterprises (W.D. Tex. No. 6:22-cv-00050) · US 10,405,457, "Appliance immersion cooling system" (filed 2013-12-13, granted 2019-09-03). In plain words: a tank of dielectric fluid with a weir and overflow reservoir for cooling submerged servers or miners. · …
• L150 [FRINGE] Green Revolution Cooling v. Riot Platforms (W.D. Tex.) · US 10,123,463 and US 9,992,914: horizontal immersion tanks for servers (priority 2008-08-11) · On 2026-04-17 a jury found Riot did not infringe (Law360 headline/preview). · PDF of '463 saved
• L152 [FRINGE/UNVERIFIED] Digital Shovel v. RK Mission Critical (D. Colo.) · Digital Shovel's "V-Shape" mining-container patents from 2022–2024 (numbers not given) · Filed 2024-07-02. It alleges about 850 copied containers sold at over $200,000 each (Bitcoin Magazine). Outcome not found (unverified). · —
• L154 [FRINGE] Why it matters: these suits show where the money is in Bitcoin patents: mining hardware, cooling and power deals, not the protocol. Several turned on validity challenges at the PTAB or on who the true inventor was, rather than on infringement.
• L164 [UNVERIFIED] The US member is US 11,113,676 B2. It was granted 2021-09-07, is active until 2036-04-16, and has been assigned to "Circle Line International Ltd". That is an unrelated name; do not confuse it with Circle Internet Group (relationship unverified).
• L167 [UNVERIFIED] The family includes EP 3 095 044 B1 and CN 106415530 A. Google flags litigation in the family, details not found (unverified).
• L169 [UNVERIFIED] Bitmain's Chinese filing CN 105245327 A was filed 2015-08-21. Its inventors include Jihan Wu (吴忌寒) and Micree Zhan (詹克团). It optimises a Bitcoin proof-of-work chip by holding one input fixed and varying another, an AsicBoost-style idea. Google lists it as "pending" (stale or unverified).
• L172 [CONTESTED] The 2017 "covert AsicBoost" dispute (contested):
• L187 [UNVERIFIED] Outcome not found (unverified).
• L201 [FRINGE] Anuwave v. Coinbase (D. Del., June 2019) asserted US 8,295,862, "Method and system to enable communication through SMS communication channel". It targeted Coinbase's text-message commands (Decrypt).
• L206 [UNVERIFIED] Outcome not found (unverified).
• L211 [FRINGE/UNVERIFIED] No nChain patent-infringement lawsuit found (unverified). I found none in news, the court records reachable to me, or Google's litigation flags on the nChain patents checked. Bitcoin SV community threads speculate about enforcement (r/bitcoincashSV). Wright's well-known suits were about …
• L223 [UNVERIFIED] The outcome of the re-examination was not found (unverified).
• L231 [CONTESTED] Size (contested):
• L236 [UNVERIFIED] CoinGeek is part of the same Calvin Ayre-linked business group as nChain (affiliation from common knowledge, unverified here), so treat its counts as the company's own claims.
• L240 [UNVERIFIED] The gap is probably applications versus grants and family versus member counting (unverified).
• L242 [UNVERIFIED] BSV Times reports two more Wright-inventor US patents granted 2026-08-25 to nChain Licensing AG (numbers not found, unverified).
• L248 [UNVERIFIED] Licensing: the BSV node software is released under the Open BSV License (version 5 in the GitHub repo; BSV Times reports version 6 for Teranode). Its key condition is that the software "must only be used on the BSV Blockchains". If you break that, "you can be enjoined from violating …
• L290 [UNVERIFIED] Why it matters: the 2014 filings were an early sign that exchanges would patent custody methods. Coinbase is now a COPA platinum member (COPA members). Its pledge covers patents COPA calls "foundational" to crypto (COPA FAQ). Which specific Coinbase patents count as "foundational" is …
• L301 [UNVERIFIED] No patent suit by or against Ledger was found (unverified).
• L346 [UNVERIFIED] On 2026-10-09 Google Patents still listed IBM as current assignee of the two IBM patents above. Either the assignments are not yet recorded or those two were not in the deal (unverified).
• L424 [UNVERIFIED] Meta was reported to have joined in 2022, but the article link returned 404 (unverified), and Meta is not on the current list.
• L435 [CONTESTED] Contested: critics argued a company pledge is still "trust us" (IP Watch, 2016-07-21; r/btc thread).
• L456 [UNVERIFIED] The 2014 Coinbase and BofA filings came weeks to months after Mt. Gox failed in February 2014 (date from general knowledge, not re-checked here). That is timing only: the filings do not mention Mt. Gox (any causal link unverified). For the hacks themselves, see sources/hacks/. Patents on …
• L472 [UNVERIFIED] Outcomes not found: the US 12,032,677 re-examination; Digital Shovel; Anuwave v. Coinbase; BearBox's Federal Circuit appeal (2025, unverified).

notes/2026-10-09-technology.md (26)

• L118 [UNVERIFIED] Fee bumping: an unconfirmed transaction can be replaced by a higher-fee version. BIP 125 defined opt-in signalling for this [BIP 125]. Bitcoin Core 28.0 (2024-10-05) made "full RBF" the default (mempoolfullrbf=1), so signalling is no longer needed on default nodes [S20b]. Since Core 31's …
• L123 [UNVERIFIED] Duplicate transaction IDs: early coinbases could repeat, which allowed outputs to be overwritten. BIP 30 bans a new transaction from reusing the txid of one with unspent outputs, and grandfathers two historic violations at heights 91,842 and 91,880 [BIP 30]. BIP 34 forced block heights into …
• L152 [UNVERIFIED] Consensus versus policy. Consensus rules decide which blocks are valid, and every node must agree on them. Policy (also called "standardness") is each node's own choice of which unconfirmed transactions to relay or mine. Bitcoin Core 30.0 (2025-10-13) changed its policy defaults:
• L223 [UNVERIFIED] It fixed a long-standing problem where anyone could alter a transaction's ID before it confirmed ("malleability"). Malleability had blocked protocols like Lightning that chain unconfirmed transactions.
• L271 [CONTESTED] Side effects (contested):
• L312 [UNVERIFIED] An attacker uses the rules for replacing unconfirmed transactions to stop a routing node's timeout transaction from confirming, and can then take the funds in transit.
• L363 [CONTESTED] Contested:
• L369 [UNVERIFIED] No public proof either way was found for this note (unverified). The open "version-rolling" form uses header version bits; see draft BIP 320 in the BIP index [S12].
• L405 [UNVERIFIED] miners who claimed less than the full reward (unverified size);
• L413 [UNVERIFIED] In plain language. A full node downloads every block and checks it against the rules itself, so it does not have to trust anyone. Most people run Bitcoin Core. About one reachable node in six runs Bitcoin Knots, which is built from Core. Its community backed BIP 110 [S47], and it is widely …
• L432 [UNVERIFIED] Version mix among reachable Core nodes: 31.x 8,961; 29.x 4,290; 27.x 1,957; 28.x 1,882; 30.x 1,527 [S7]. The low count for 30.x is sometimes read as operators avoiding the 30.0 OP_RETURN change. That reading is unverified.
• L446 [UNVERIFIED] Peter Todd's fork (petertodd/bitcoin) · — · MIT · no releases · the relay-policy variant called "Libre Relay" (unverified description)
• L462 [CONTESTED] Who "decides" is itself disputed:
• L494 [UNVERIFIED] 2013-03-11 · — · Accidental split (CVE-2013-3220): v0.8 accepts a block that pre-0.8 nodes reject because of a Berkeley DB lock limit. The 0.8 side has ≈ 60% of hashpower. Pools downgrade to end it. At least one (experimental) double spend. The forking block's height is not in these sources …
• L496 [UNVERIFIED] 2013-05 · — · A planned change removes the hidden lock limit. From then on the 1 MB limit becomes the effective cap (the Bitcoin Wiki says "cleanly activated"). Exact date unverified · planned hard fork · [S13][BIP 50]
• L528 [UNVERIFIED] 2026-09 · — · Reports that the BIP-110 fork restarted with ~300 kB blocks (headline only; article blocked) · minority chain · [S49] (unverified)
• L556 [CONTESTED] In April 2017 Bitmain accused Bitcoin Core of being "almost controlled by a small secretive committee". It called the removal of Gavin Andresen's commit access a "coup" and pledged to protect larger blocks "at any cost" [S29]. These are Bitmain's claims; Core developers dispute them (contested).
• L566 [CONTESTED] ASICBoost: whether some miners blocked SegWit because it would disable covert ASICBoost is contested (§11) [S28][S29].
• L568 [CONTESTED] Who activated SegWit (contested):
• L580 [UNVERIFIED] Book-length accounts: Jonathan Bier, The Blocksize War (small-block view), and Roger Ver with Steve Patterson, Hijacking Bitcoin (big-block view). Neither was read for this note, and their bibliographic details are unverified; see the books note.
• L600 [CONTESTED] Transaction malleability · txid changed before confirmation; Mt. Gox claimed (2014) it was drained this way · signatures did not cover themselves · BIP 66, BIP 147 and SegWit. Decker and Wattenhofer found "no widespread use of malleability attacks before the closure of MtGox" (contested …
• L603 [UNVERIFIED] 51% (majority) attack · the attacker can reverse their own recent payments and censor others, but cannot create coins or take coins "that never belonged to the attacker" · proof of work: the most-work chain wins · more confirmations for large amounts; high hashrate. Smaller forks have been …
• L607 [CONTESTED] Covert ASICBoost · a hidden mining optimisation incompatible with protocol upgrades · SHA-256 header structure · proposal to inhibit it (2017); SegWit commitment structure · contested whether it was ever used · [S28][S29][S30]
• L610 [CONTESTED] Quantum computers (future) · Shor's algorithm could derive private keys from public keys exposed on-chain ("long exposure") or in the mempool ("short exposure") · elliptic-curve signatures · BIP 360 (P2MR) and BIP 361 (phased sunset of ECDSA/Schnorr spends), both Draft. BIP 361 would …
• L611 [CONTESTED/UNVERIFIED] Data embedding ("spam" or legitimate use, contested) · larger blocks; arbitrary data stored in the chain · any byte a fee pays for can carry data · stricter relay filters (as reported for Knots, unverified) versus relaxed policy (Core 30); the BIP 110 consensus attempt failed with a chain …
• L689 [UNVERIFIED] S38 · Retailer listing "Antminer S23 Hydro 3U (1160 Th/s)" (seller spec, unverified) · cryptobox.cz · read 2026-10-09 · <link>

notes/2026-10-09-who-is-satoshi.md (33)

• L3 [FRINGE/CONTESTED] Every candidate who has been seriously or publicly proposed, with who proposed each one and when, the evidence for and against, and where each claim stands as of 2026-10-09. Contested and fringe claims are included too, each labelled with who makes it. These are research notes, not …
• L15 [CONTESTED] Contested · Disputed by named people. Both sides are given.
• L16 [FRINGE] Fringe · Put forward by few people and rejected by most who have looked at it. Kept because the editor wants everything, clearly flagged.
• L18 [UNVERIFIED] (unverified) · Could not be confirmed from a source retrieved on 2026-10-09.
• L82 [UNVERIFIED] 900,000–1.17M (Bitquery, 2026, as reported by a low-reliability outlet; (unverified)) [S66].
• L92 [CONTESTED] 3 · Adam Back · FT 2016 (as part of a group); John McAfee 2018; Barely Sociable 2020; HBO 2024; NYT (John Carreyrou), 8 Apr 2026 · Denies it. The leading media candidate in 2026. Contested, unproven.
• L93 [CONTESTED] 4 · Hal Finney (d. 2014) · Forbes (Andy Greenberg), 25 Mar 2014, who then cleared him; FT 2016; Finding Satoshi, 22 Apr 2026 · Denied it in life. Contested.
• L99 [FRINGE] 10 · Paul Le Roux · Evan Ratliff (book Jan 2019; Wired 2019); Martin Shkreli, 13 Dec 2022 · Fringe. Shkreli's evidence is discredited.
• L101 [FRINGE] 12 · Shinichi Mochizuki · Ted Nelson, May 2013 · Fringe. Reportedly denied.
• L106 [FRINGE] 17 · Elon Musk · Sahil Gupta (former SpaceX intern), Nov 2017 · Musk denied it. Fringe.
• L107 [FRINGE] 18 · Jack Dorsey · Seán Murray (deBanked); promoted by Matthew Sigel (VanEck), Feb 2025 · Dorsey denies it. Fringe.
• L111 [FRINGE] 22 · Other fringe items (European finance collective, company-name acronym, Epstein email, pro se lawsuit) · Various · Fringe or hoax.
• L184 [UNVERIFIED] Film. A US$70M film dramatising Wright's account (dir. Doug Liman, with Casey Affleck as Wright, reportedly funded by Calvin Ayre) had found no distributor as of Sept 2026 (Reported) [S67]. The title is often given as Killing Satoshi (unverified; not named in the retrieved source).
• L188 [FRINGE] Status: legally declared not Satoshi. Wright and his supporters still assert the claim; they are a fringe position. The outcome of the CPS referral was not found (gap).
• L223 [CONTESTED] Evidence for (Reported / Contested)
• L255 [CONTESTED] Status: the leading media candidate in 2026. Contested, unproven.
• L292 [CONTESTED] Status: denied it before his death on 28 Aug 2014 (he is cryopreserved at Alcor) [S31]. Revived and contested in 2026.
• L320 [CONTESTED] Status: unproven, contested.
• L427 [FRINGE] Status: Fringe. Unproven.
• L448 [FRINGE] Status: Fringe.
• L452 [UNVERIFIED] Who proposed it, and when: Vice list, 22 May 2013 [S50]. Later blog speculation (unverified; not retrieved).
• L492 [CONTESTED] Evidence against: the claim was disputed (Dustin Trammell said the linked address was his own), and the authors retracted it [S30].
• L503 [FRINGE] Status: Fringe.
• L520 [FRINGE] Status: Fringe.
• L549 [FRINGE] A "computer collective" in the European financial sector: discussed in 2013 (IBTimes) (Fringe) [S30].
• L586 [FRINGE/UNVERIFIED] Name-meaning theory: "Satoshi Nakamoto" is said to mean "central intelligence" (Fringe, (unverified); no source retrieved).
• L595 [UNVERIFIED] Jeffrey Epstein: a fabricated email circulated claiming Epstein invented Bitcoin. AFP and Snopes fact-checked it as fabricated (details unverified: only the headlines were seen; the articles could not be retrieved) [S71].
• L597 [FRINGE/UNVERIFIED] "SAmsung-TOSHIBA-NAKAmichi-MOTOrola" acronym: the name is said to be built from these company names (Fringe, (unverified); no source retrieved).
• L642 [UNVERIFIED] Bitquery, 2026: reportedly 54,316 blocks reconstructed, a 99.2% match to the pattern, and 900k–1.17M BTC. Its researchers stress that the pattern cannot show who controls the keys today (Reported by a low-reliability outlet; (unverified)) [S66].
• L654 [UNVERIFIED] On 5 Jan 2024 someone sent 26.9 BTC to the genesis-block address. It says nothing about Satoshi [S64]. The Block calls these coins unspendable. Only the 50 BTC genesis reward is unspendable by design; later deposits could in principle be spent by whoever holds the key (unverified here).
• L683 [UNVERIFIED] What it shows: the computer or mail program Satoshi used was set to a GMT/BST-type zone (UK, Ireland or Portugal), not German time (CET/CEST), even though the account was a GMX address (the point about GMX's server time is unverified).
• L756 [FRINGE] Unsourced fringe items. The company-acronym and "central intelligence" name theories are noted as fringe with no source.
• L837 [UNVERIFIED] [S60] CryptoVantage, "Did Satoshi Nakamoto live in London?" (date not confirmed; covers Chain Bulletin's analysis and rebuttals) — <link>

Market

market/2026-10-09-banking.md (20)

• L3 [CONTESTED/UNVERIFIED] Researched 2026-10-09. This is research, not legal or financial advice, and not a recommendation of any bank.* It records what public sources said on the dates given; terms change, and any bank decides each account case by case. Saved government and court documents are in sources/banking/ …
• L19 [CONTESTED] "Operation Choke Point 2.0" is contested. A House majority staff report (2025-12-01) and the FDIC's own acting chairman (2025-02-05) describe a coordinated effort to cut crypto off from banks. Fed officials, Senate Democrats and New York's bank regulator disputed parts of that account. What …
• L81 [UNVERIFIED] Accounting. The SEC staff's 2022 accounting guidance (Topic 5.FF, added by SAB 121) made custodians record customers' crypto as a liability on their own balance sheets, which, by industry accounts, made custody impractical for banks. SAB 122 rescinded that guidance on 2025-01-23 (SEC, <link> …
• L88 [UNVERIFIED] Silvergate Bank (La Jolla, CA). Silvergate ran the Silvergate Exchange Network, the main 24/7 dollar-transfer system between crypto exchanges and traders before 2023 (unverified from primary sources here).
• L122 [CONTESTED] Contested: was Signature closed to send an anti-crypto message?
• L156 [CONTESTED] Disputes and qualifications (contested).
• L170 [CONTESTED] What is documented either way. The non-objection and notice requirements, the FDIC pause letters, the open-ended reviews the FDIC Inspector General criticized, the withdrawn OCC requests, and the large banks' written sector restrictions. Whether these add up to a coordinated political …
• L280 [CONTESTED/UNVERIFIED] Pushback (contested). The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) reportedly sued the OCC in about October 2026, arguing it cannot charter "non-fiduciary" crypto trust banks. Source: news headline only, <link> (unverified; court filing not found).
• L318 [CONTESTED] Contested or unclear: PYMNTS (2026-07-22) reported the approval as March 2026. It also reported a "limited-purpose" account for one year, approved but not yet operational, with services to start with institutional clients (<link> No Fed press release on Kraken was found.
• L358 [UNVERIFIED] Who they are. Wyoming institutions in the Fed database are Kraken Financial, Custodia Bank, Commercium Financial and N3XT; BankWyse withdrew its master-account request on 2024-05-31. That these four are the four approved charters is our inference (unverified).
• L375 [UNVERIFIED] Cross River Bank (New Jersey) · State-chartered, FDIC-insured (charter details unverified) · "Corporate accounts, traditional and instant payment rails for wallet funding, and 24/7/365 instant funding and settlement"; USD-to-stablecoin payments with "real-time mint/burn"; crypto-linked …
• L377 [UNVERIFIED] Western Alliance Bank (Phoenix, AZ) · FDIC-insured (charter details unverified) · Digital asset group: "proprietary 24/7 currency settlement infrastructure", account structures for "institutional funds and stablecoin reserve balances". About $2 billion in digital-asset deposits, 130+ …
• L378 [UNVERIFIED] Lead Bank (Kansas City, MO) · FDIC-insured (charter details unverified) · "Move seamlessly between USD and stablecoins to power pay-ins and payouts, fund global FX payouts, and issue stablecoin-backed cards"; on- and off-ramps · Partners named in news: Stripe's Bridge, Zerohash, BVNK, Brale, …
• L381 [UNVERIFIED] Erebor Bank, N.A. (Columbus, OH) · OCC national bank, FDIC-insured · Deposits and loans for "technology, payment systems, investment, and defense industries, including virtual currency market participants" (FDIC); "technology companies and ultra-high-net-worth individuals that utilize …
• L382 [UNVERIFIED] Custodia Bank (Cheyenne, WY) · Wyoming SPDI; not FDIC-insured; no master account · Tokenized-deposit platform with Vantage Bank (Texas) for community banks and credit unions, tied to Custodia's "Avit" token (launched 2025-10-23) · Custodia calls itself a "grandfathered 'permitted …
• L394 [UNVERIFIED] Bank of America · Reported to allow wealth advisers to recommend crypto allocations from January 2026 · News only (<link> (unverified)
• L425 [UNVERIFIED] Metropolitan Commercial Bank · Reported to have exited crypto in 2023 (unverified). A Fed/NYDFS order of 2023-10-16 over its prepaid-card program ended 2025-12-04 (Fed enforcement data). · Fed enforcement CSV
• L483 [UNVERIFIED] The date of Kraken's master-account approval differs: the Fed database says 2026-01-28; PYMNTS says March 2026. Whether the account is live as of October 2026 is not confirmed.
• L497 [UNVERIFIED] Which four institutions hold Wyoming SPDI charters is inferred, not confirmed by the Division of Banking.
• L498 [UNVERIFIED] The Spark run on this topic (20261009-144200--how-hard-is-it-for-bitcoin-and-crypto-businesses-to-get-us-b) was still queued when this file was written. Update (completeness check, 2026-10-09): it finished at 23:13 UTC with all eight sub-answers CONFIDENT. Its rejected material is listed in …

market/2026-10-09-exchanges.md (34)

• L11 [UNVERIFIED] (unverified) marks something I could not confirm against a primary source on 2026-10-09. (headline only) means I saw only a search-result title, not the article. (single source) means only one secondary outlet reported it.
• L30 [UNVERIFIED] Coinbase · Yes · Required (KYC/CDD at onboarding) [G7] · NY BitLicense + MTL since 2017-01; NY trust (Coinbase Custody) 2018-10 [R1]. Other state MTLs and FinCEN MSB (unverified: licence page returned 403) · NYDFS 2023: $50M penalty + $50M compliance spend [G7]. SEC suit dismissed 2025-02-27 …
• L32 [UNVERIFIED] Gemini · Yes · Required (unverified on Gemini's site) · NY trust charter since 2015-10 [R1]. CFTC DCM licence 2025-12 (headline only) [N42] · NYDFS ~$37M plus ≥$1.1B returned to Earn users (2024) [N11]. CFTC $5M (2025), then jointly moved to vacate 2026-05-27 [N12] · None found (unverified)
• L35 [UNVERIFIED] Binance.US (BAM Trading) · Yes, most states. Not NY (absent from NYDFS list [R1]) · Required (unverified) · FinCEN MSB; NMLS 1906829; state MTL list on page dated 2026-06-04 [C5] · SEC suit dropped 2025-05-29 (headline only) [N22] · Not checked
• L36 [UNVERIFIED] OKX · Global site: not for US. OKX US launched 2025 [N20] · Required (unverified) · US licences not verified · 2025-02-24 guilty plea: $504.7M ($84.4M fine + $420.3M forfeiture) [N2][G12] · Monthly, zk-STARK. 47th report 2026-09: BTC 109% [C7]
• L37 [UNVERIFIED] Bybit · No (unverified) · Required (unverified) · Austria CASP 2025-05, Austria EMI 2026-08, UAE VARA 2025-10, India FIU-IND 2025-01 [N17] · Victim of ~$1.5B theft 2025-02-21, attributed by the FBI to North Korea [G35] · Page exists; timed out, not read
• L38 [UNVERIFIED] Bitfinex (iFinex) · No (unverified) · Required (unverified) · El Salvador DASP licence 2026-05 [N16] · CFTC 2016 $75k; NYAG 2021 $18.5M; CFTC 2021 $1.5M [N16] · Not checked
• L41 [UNVERIFIED] Crypto.com (Foris DAX) · Yes, but not NY (absent from NYDFS list [R1]) · Required (unverified) · OCC conditional national trust charter 2026-02; CFTC DCO amendment 2025-09 [N15]. State MTLs and FinCEN MSB (unverified) · SEC inquiry 2024–25 (closure unverified) · Mazars, as of 2022-12-07, …
• L42 [UNVERIFIED] Robinhood Crypto · Yes · Required (unverified on site) · NY BitLicense + MTL 2019-01 [R1] · NYDFS 2022: $30M [G8][R3]. CA DFPI 2024: $3.9M [N13]. SEC inquiry closed 2025-02 (headline only) [N21] · n/a. Public company (HOOD)
• L55 [UNVERIFIED] Paxful · Shut down in 2025 (date unverified) [N26] · None before 2019-02-15; afterwards only above $1,500 of activity [G17] · Hosted wallet + escrow · DOJ plea 2025-12; $4M sentence 2026-02-10 [G14][G15]. FinCEN $3.5M [G17]. Co-founder plea 2024 [G14]. Founder Ray Youssef indicted …
• L93 [CONTESTED] State law and the facts of each venue can differ. Whether a given venue meets the test is contested and untested in court as far as I found.
• L118 [UNVERIFIED] FinCEN MSB and other state MTLs: (unverified).
• L131 [UNVERIFIED] A federal docket, State of Oregon v. Coinbase, No. 3:25-cv-00952 (D. Or.), suggests the case was removed. Current posture (unverified).
• L136 [UNVERIFIED] Proof of reserves. No Merkle-tree PoR found (unverified). As a listed company it files audited financial statements with the SEC.
• L167 [UNVERIFIED] Other state MTLs: (unverified); Gemini's licence page did not render.
• L168 [UNVERIFIED] KYC. Required (unverified on Gemini's site).
• L172 [UNVERIFIED] SEC Earn suit [N11] (filing year 2023, unverified). Resolution reported in progress in 2025 (US News, 2025-04-01, headline only); final status (unverified). A separate SEC investigation was reported closed in 2025-02 (headline only) [N23].
• L174 [CONTESTED] CFTC. $5M settlement in 2025-01 over statements about bitcoin-futures manipulation risk. On 2026-05-27 the CFTC and Gemini jointly moved to vacate it, the CFTC saying the complaint "should not have been filed" [N12]. Contested: a former CFTC chair called the reversal "extraordinarily …
• L177 [UNVERIFIED] Proof of reserves. None found (unverified).
• L209 [CONTESTED] Monitorship (contested):
• L217 [UNVERIFIED] Non-US licences. Wikipedia lists licences in France, Italy, Spain and Sweden. It says Binance is "banned or restricted" in the UK, Australia, Canada and, since 2026-05, the EU under MiCA. The EU part is (unverified) [N8].
• L247 [UNVERIFIED] US availability. Not offered to US users (unverified).
• L255 [UNVERIFIED] US availability. Not for US persons (unverified); the terms page did not render.
• L262 [UNVERIFIED] The statement of offense and a 2025-04-04 restitution opinion are saved by another researcher in sources/hacks/. The opinion is scanned and was not read; how much BTC goes back to Bitfinex is (unverified).
• L280 [UNVERIFIED] CFTC settlement 2026-03 (unverified).
• L307 [UNVERIFIED] FinCEN MSB and state MTLs: (unverified).
• L308 [UNVERIFIED] KYC. Required (unverified).
• L309 [UNVERIFIED] SEC. Wells notice in 2024 and closure in 2025 are widely reported, but I did not find a source on 2026-10-09 (unverified).
• L385 [UNVERIFIED] Software projects. I found no US enforcement action against Bisq, Hodl Hodl, RoboSats, Peach or Mostro in searches on 2026-10-09 (absence is unverified).
• L389 [CONTESTED] Contested: in 2024–2025 prosecutors used § 1960 against other non-custodial privacy software. That is not sourced in this file and is outside its scope; see other researchers' notes on wallets and mixers.
• L413 [UNVERIFIED] 2023-04-04. Co-founder and CEO Ray Youssef announced a shutdown amid litigation with co-founder Artur Schaback [N25]. The platform later continued operating (unverified), and "shut down in 2025" [N26].
• L512 [UNVERIFIED] Missouri · Merchandising Practices Act; 2025 kiosk law (per CoinFlip, unverified) · AG suit vs CoinFlip · Filed 2026-05-20 · [G25][N37]
• L519 [UNVERIFIED] Cities. San Antonio requires bilingual warning signs (2026-07-01) [N29]. Spokane, WA reportedly banned kiosks in 2025-06 (low-quality source; unverified).
• L535 [CONTESTED] Whether non-custodial P2P software needs a licence. FinCEN's 2019 guidance says matching-only and key-holding-without-control services are not money transmitters [R6a]. Prosecutors have contested this for some non-custodial tools. DOJ's 2025 memo narrows charging but "casts no doubt on …

market/2026-10-09-link-map.md (5)

• L104 [UNVERIFIED] Brand matching can still be wrong for short or common names (Square, Strike, Speed, Gemini, Kraken, Flexa, Tesla). Mentions of the company count even when the page does not link to the site. A spot check after the tightening found the false positives listed above; others may remain …
• L246 [UNVERIFIED] Common ownership of the "network" sites is (unverified): the footer says "our network", but nothing on the page names an owner.
• L253 [UNVERIFIED] luxy.com is not the Luxy dating app. On 2026-10-09 luxy.com was the site of an Italian design-furniture company: its title is "Home - Luxy", its about page is "Chi Siamo", and it links to Instagram luxy_design_furniture ([luxy.com][luxy]). The dating app "Luxy · Dating for High-End …
• L265 [UNVERIFIED] The Giving Block (crypto donations) links to Stand With Crypto's sign-up page, the Coinbase-backed advocacy group ([thegivingblock.com][tgb]). The Coinbase backing is from general knowledge, not checked here (unverified).
• L273 [UNVERIFIED] These are links the businesses themselves put on their home or about pages on 2026-10-09. The registration numbers are as shown by the company and were not checked against each registry here (unverified). For KYC thresholds and full licence status, see the processors and exchanges files.

market/2026-10-09-merchants-accepting-bitcoin.md (25)

• L24 [CONTESTED] El Salvador made acceptance compulsory in 2021 and voluntary again in 2025 as a condition of a $1.4 billion IMF programme ([IMF PR25/43][imf]). Whether bitcoin is still "legal tender" there is contested (see Governments).
• L31 [CONTESTED] How much Bitcoin use is illicit is contested. One academic estimate puts it at about 46% of transactions in Bitcoin's early years ([Foley et al. 2019][foley]); a later study using better entity data finds illegal use, scams and gambling together under 3% of volume ([Makarov & Schoar …
• L53 [UNVERIFIED] BitPay (US, founded 2011) · Tiered: tier 2 ($10k/day, $500k/yr) needs IDs of all 25%+ owners, business registration, tax ID, website, settlement account; tier 3 ($100k/day, $5M/yr) adds three months of bank statements; tier 4 (unlimited) needs a compliance call · BitPay ID required for …
• L56 [UNVERIFIED] Bitrefill (gift cards) · n/a · Tiered (see Gift cards): no account up to $500/day; ID + proof of address + selfie for the top tier · Entities: Airfill Prepaid AB (Sweden), Airfill US LLC (Delaware), Bitrefill S.A. de C.V. (El Salvador). Swedish or Salvadoran registration **not confirmed …
• L75 [UNVERIFIED] Overstock · First major US online retailer, January 2014; current status not checked · Originally via Coinbase (unverified) · — · [Wikipedia, History of bitcoin][hob]
• L76 [UNVERIFIED] Microsoft · From 2014-12-11, US customers could add bitcoin to a Microsoft account balance (not a direct checkout method); current status (unverified): BitPay's Microsoft directory page returned no content · Account top-up · — · [IBTimes 2014-12-11][ms14]
• L78 [UNVERIFIED] Tesla · Accepted bitcoin for cars from early 2021; suspended 2021-05-12 over fossil-fuel use in mining · Direct · — · [WTVR 2021-05-12][tsla]. Start date: the source says February 2021; it is often given as March 2021 (unverified).
• L81 [CONTESTED/UNVERIFIED] Contested: Steak 'n Shake says sales grew "double digits" since it began accepting bitcoin ([Bitcoin Magazine][sns]). That is the company's own claim; no independent data separates bitcoin's effect from its other promotions (unverified).
• L90 [UNVERIFIED] Travala.com · Accepts BTC and 100+ other cryptocurrencies plus cards; Skyscanner integration (2.2 million hotels) from September 2024 · Own checkout; Binance Pay and Crypto.com Pay also listed · Operating company, licences and KYC policy not stated on its homepage (unverified) · …
• L91 [UNVERIFIED] Emirates (airline) · Launched 2026-07-28 for UAE residents only, on fares priced in dirhams · Crypto.com Pay; BTC, ETH, CRO; converted to dirhams (or a central-bank-approved dirham stablecoin) before Emirates is paid · Buyer approves payment in the Crypto.com app; Crypto.com account …
• L99 [UNVERIFIED] ExpressVPN · Current payment pages list cards, PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Pay only; no crypto mentioned. BitPay's ExpressVPN directory page returns 404. Third-party reviews still say it takes bitcoin (unverified; appears to have stopped) · — · [ExpressVPN payments][evpn]; …
• L100 [UNVERIFIED] Namecheap (domains, hosting) · Bitcoin via BitPay since 2013; added self-hosted BTCPay Server in 2020; reports 1.1 million BTCPay transactions and over $73 million in revenue from May 2020 to October 2024 · BTCPay itself does no KYC; a Reddit thread reports Namecheap asking …
• L113 [UNVERIFIED] Bitrefill "may require" KYC at any time and monitors use for compliance. Operating entities: Airfill Prepaid AB (Sweden), Airfill US LLC (Delaware) and Bitrefill S.A. de C.V. (El Salvador). Its regulatory registrations are not stated in the terms (unverified).
• L123 [UNVERIFIED] Gucci · Announced 2022-05-05: pilot in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta and Las Vegas stores, with a plan for all North American stores; 12 cryptocurrencies including BTC; customer gets an emailed QR code · Processor reported as BitPay (unverified); current status **not …
• L130 [UNVERIFIED] Homes are almost always priced in dollars; "buying with bitcoin" usually means selling or borrowing against it at closing. Propy runs blockchain-recorded closings and on 2026-05-15 partnered with Milo so buyers can use bitcoin or ether as mortgage collateral (up to $25 million) …
• L144 [UNVERIFIED] Save the Children · Has a bitcoin donation page on its US site (page refused automated reading) (unverified detail) · [savethechildren.org][stc]
• L154 [UNVERIFIED] 2025 reform: approved by the Legislative Assembly on 2025-01-29 by 55 votes to 2 ([Reason 2025-02-03][reason]; [U.S. News 2025-01-29][usn]). Under the IMF's own description: private-sector acceptance becomes voluntary; taxes are paid only in U.S. dollars; public-sector bitcoin …
• L160 [CONTESTED] Contested: is bitcoin still "legal tender"? Reason reports that bitcoin is no longer called "currency" but remains "legal tender" ([Reason][reason]). Ptycoin and Wikipedia (citing Dig.watch) say legal-tender status was removed ([Ptycoin][pty]; [Wikipedia][wsv]). The IMF release does …
• L165 [UNVERIFIED] Central African Republic: parliament voted bitcoin legal tender on 2022-04-22 (promulgated 2022-04-27) and agreed to repeal it in April 2023 ([Wikipedia, Legality of cryptocurrency][wlc]; no cited source on that page, so (unverified)).
• L188 [UNVERIFIED] Ashley Madison · A payment-methods directory (updated October 2026) lists cards and Revolut, no crypto; Ashley Madison's own billing page refused automated reading (unverified) · [WhoAcceptsIt][wai]
• L191 [UNVERIFIED] Claims that could not be confirmed: lists published by crypto businesses say Ashley Madison, Badoo, Luxy, SmartDates, Matchpool, DateCoin and BitLove accept bitcoin ([NOWPayments blog 2026-03-16][nowp]; [HideYourCard][hyc]), and a crypto directory lists Luxy, Dating.com and its sister sites …
• L239 [CONTESTED] Foley, Karlsen & Putniņš, Review of Financial Studies 32(5):1798–1853 (2019) · About one quarter of bitcoin users and about 46% of bitcoin transactions linked to illegal activity, about $76 billion a year; illegal share falls as mainstream use grows · Contested …
• L244 [CONTESTED] Contested: the 46% and under-3% figures measure different things (share of transactions in Bitcoin's early years vs. share of economically meaningful volume after 2015) and use different address-labelling methods. Industry figures (Chainalysis) count only addresses already identified as …
• L255 [UNVERIFIED] Dating sites "accepting Bitcoin": only OkCupid (2013) is documented; vendor lists are unconfirmed.
• L258 [UNVERIFIED] Tesla start date (February vs. March 2021); Gucci's processor (BitPay, unconfirmed); ExpressVPN (appears to have stopped; not confirmed by the company).

market/2026-10-09-payment-processors.md (19)

• L79 [UNVERIFIED] ZBD · Lightning API (gaming focus); custodial (unverified) · Lightning, on-chain · "typically < 1%" · BTC; EUR via EU e-money licence · EEA and others (not listed)
• L80 [UNVERIFIED] Speed · Lightning gateway; custodial (unverified) · Lightning, on-chain, plus USDT/USDC · Not published ("near-zero") · BTC or stablecoins · "100+ countries"
• L82 [UNVERIFIED] Flexa · Payment network for retailers; custodial (unverified) · BTC, Lightning and 11 other networks · 1% all-in · USD, CAD, EUR or crypto; ACH/wire · Not listed
• L84 [UNVERIFIED] Crypto.com Pay for Business · Custodial (unverified) · BTC · "no transaction fee"; payout fee applies · 30+ fiat currencies or BTC/ETH/CRO/USDC · Not stated
• L85 [UNVERIFIED] Triple-A · Licensed in SG/FR/US/CA; custodial (unverified) · BTC (Lightning not stated) · Not published · Stablecoins or 30+ local currencies, next day · 70+ countries for payouts
• L97 [UNVERIFIED] Coinbase Business · Yes (unverified: Coinbase pages blocked) · Not stated · Coinbase Singapore MPI licence (Oct 2023); US licences not re-checked · 2026-03 legacy Commerce page asked users for seed phrases; tool removed
• L100 [UNVERIFIED] Strike · Yes (account required; specifics not published) · Strike users are verified accounts (unverified) · NMLS 1902919; money-transmitter licences in 49 jurisdictions listed (no CA, HI or MT); NY BitLicense 0000050 (Feb 2026) · None found
• L104 [UNVERIFIED] NOWPayments · Discretionary: "may" do KYC for individuals; KYB by third party for custody/fiat · Extra checks for refunds to new addresses · None stated; operator FD Transfers LLC (St. Vincent and the Grenadines) · User complaints about funds held in custody (unverified)
• L132 [UNVERIFIED] Lists licence numbers for 31 jurisdictions: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CT, DE, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IA, KS, KY, MD, MA, MI, MS, NE, NJ, NY (No. 0000008), NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, SD, TN, WA, WV, WY. Maine, New Hampshire and New Mexico are listed with "No License #". California: BitPay "has applied for …
• L150 [CONTESTED] 2017: BitPay's backing of the SegWit2x fork is why Nicolas Dorier started BTCPay Server (BTCPay blog). Contested history; that account is BTCPay's.
• L181 [UNVERIFIED] KYC. Coinbase Business is a verified business account (unverified: Coinbase's pages were unreadable). Commerce's old self-custody product was widely described as needing no merchant ID (unverified).
• L302 [UNVERIFIED] Operator and where it works (terms, last updated 2026-08-31): FD Transfers LLC, registered in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. §15.1: "The Services are not rendered to residents or citizens of the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, the United Arab Emirates, or …
• L315 [UNVERIFIED] Incidents. User posts complain of funds held in custody (e.g. r/NOWPayments_official); unverified anecdotes.
• L356 [UNVERIFIED] Voltage Payments. An API on top of Lightning, either "Credit-backed" (a Voltage line of credit, no node to run) or "Node-backed" (the customer's own node) (docs). The "processing fee" in the docs is an optional fee the merchant charges its own users, off by default, switched on only once …
• L361 [UNVERIFIED] ZBD (Zebedee). Lightning and on-chain payments API aimed at games; fees "typically < 1%"; "Automated identity verification where required", sanctions screening, "Money transmission licenses in key markets" (not named) (ZBD docs). EU electronic-money licence in the Netherlands and a MiCA …
• L367 [CONTESTED/UNVERIFIED] Speed. Lightning and on-chain BTC plus USDT and USDC; "100+ countries"; offices in Las Vegas, Dubai and Ahmedabad. "Speed Merchant (tryspeed.com) is operated by Speed1 INC and utilizes crypto services covered by the Money Services Business (MSB) license held by CoinX USA LLC (MSB License: …
• L374 [UNVERIFIED] Coinsnap. Non-custodial: "All payments are deposited directly into your own wallet or your own bank account" (coinsnap.io). "Coinsnap charges a fee of 1%." Euro payouts through Swiss broker DFX, or Bringin. Payer limit: "KYC/AML verification is mandatory for un-hosted wallets for amounts …
• L401 [CONTESTED] MoonPay Commerce (Helio, bought by MoonPay in January 2025; renamed 2025-10-15). Lists BTC among supported assets; runs Shopify's Solana Pay plugin (MoonPay, 2025-01-13; MoonPay, 2025-10-15). MoonPay USA LLC is a registered MSB, NMLS 2071245. Its licences page lists licences in 48 US …
• L417 [UNVERIFIED] BVNK (stablecoins, not bitcoin-specific). Mastercard announced in March 2026 a deal to buy it (reported at $1.8B) and completed it in August 2026, per Mastercard press-release titles (March, August). The pages refused automated reading, so the details are unverified.

market/2026-10-09-walk-in-bitcoin-shops.md (11)

• L7 [UNVERIFIED] Date checked: 2026-10-09 unless an item gives another date. "(unverified)" means no primary source confirmed it.
• L44 [UNVERIFIED] "Bitcoin-Central" (Paris exchange, about 2012–2014) · France · Online exchange run with Paymium (general knowledge, unverified) · Defunct; not a US walk-in shop
• L50 [UNVERIFIED] Opened: a New Year's Eve event on 2013-12-31, about 100 feet from the NYSE. Co-founder Nick Spanos; deputy director Austin Alexander (International Business Times, 2014-01-24). Listings give the address as 40 Broad Street (listing sites, unverified).
• L61 [UNVERIFIED] Decline: a New York Business Journal headline of 2015-03-19 reads "Bitcoin Center NYC bankruptcy barely dents blockchain momentum" (article paywalled; not read). A mirror of the deleted Wikipedia article says the operating company filed for bankruptcy in 2015, citing a landlord dispute …
• L67 [UNVERIFIED] Today: no NYC storefront that sells bitcoin over the counter was found (gap). NYDFS's licensee list was blocked to automated fetching. Walk-in buying in NYC is mainly through kiosks in delis and convenience stores run by BitLicensed firms (general observation, unverified). New York …
• L94 [UNVERIFIED] Location: 3420 Spring Mountain Rd is at the east end of the Spring Mountain corridor, roughly a mile east of Chinatown Plaza (distance estimated from map coordinates; unverified). MapQuest lists other businesses at the same address, including the Zombie Apocalypse Store.
• L112 [UNVERIFIED] Source: MapQuest listing (retrieved 2026-10-09). The listing describes DigitalMint as a "Bitcoin ATM and Teller network" with a stated daily purchase limit of $20,000. The listing is undated, so whether the window is still open is unverified.
• L123 [UNVERIFIED] Watch: under the 2026-10-07 multistate consent order, Coinme exits kiosks in participating states. Nevada participated. Appendix A of the order lists it, with a $15,297.13 penalty share (order, Appendix A–B; completeness check). Whether Coinme Cash counters continue is **not …
• L143 [UNVERIFIED] Coin Cloud (Cash Cloud, Inc.), a large kiosk operator, filed Chapter 11 on 2023-02-07 in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Nevada. It listed "more than 5,000 Coin Cloud ATMs in 47 states" and Genesis Global Trading as its largest creditor ($116.4M) (PYMNTS, 2023-02-08). Its Las …
• L187 [UNVERIFIED] Ownership: news headlines report that Polygon Labs agreed to acquire Coinme (with Sequence, $250M combined) (date and closing unverified).
• L194 [UNVERIFIED] 1 · Robert Faiella and Charlie Shrem (BitInstant), S.D.N.Y. · Faiella resold bitcoin to Silk Road users; Shrem's exchange supplied him · Shrem: arrested 2014-01-26; indicted for unlicensed money transmitting, laundering conspiracy and willful failure to file SARs; pleaded guilty …

market/2026-10-09-wallets.md (34)

• L35 [UNVERIFIED] Self-custody failures look different. Today, 2026-10-09, Ledger is investigating reports that buyers of devices from a Southeast Asian reseller, CryptoBilis, lost an estimated $72–87 million. The cause is not confirmed. Ledger told recent buyers not to set up those devices (The Block; …
• L122 [UNVERIFIED] BIP38's status in the Bitcoin BIPs repository carries a comment summary of "Unanimously Discourage for implementation" (BIP38 spec header). The comments behind that summary were not reviewed. (unverified as to the reasons)
• L197 [UNVERIFIED] Price. It is not shown on the current page. At the 2023 launch it was $9.99 a month (unverified).
• L198 [CONTESTED] Backlash, May 2023 (CONTESTED). Critics said the feature showed the firmware can send seed material off the device, breaking what users understood as a promise that the seed never leaves. They also objected to the ID (KYC) requirement and to closed-source code that outsiders cannot audit. …
• L204 [UNVERIFIED] Delay. CEO Pascal Gauthier delayed the launch, called the rollout an "unintentional communication mistake", and promised a whitepaper and open-sourcing of the Recover protocol. CTO Charles Guillemet said it is "an optional subscription" (IBTimes, 2023-05-24). Launch date: October 2023 …
• L228 [UNVERIFIED] Alleged 471,000-record sale, September 2026 (unverified). A forum seller with no reputation offered "Ledger" customer records. The data fields match the 2020 dump, so it may be recycled data. Ledger had not commented as of publication (TheCyberSecGuru, 2026-09-16).
• L231 [UNVERIFIED] CryptoBilis reseller losses, reported 2026-10-09 (developing, cause unconfirmed).
• L242 [UNVERIFIED] 2018 Nano S research (unverified). A 2018 report by researcher Saleem Rashid described an attack on the Nano S's non-secure microcontroller (Ars Technica, 2018-03). The page could not be fetched today to confirm details.
• L247 [CONTESTED] Business. Ledger planned a US listing valued above $4 billion but paused before filing, as reported 2026-05-13 (Yahoo Finance). CONTESTED/inconsistent: a 2026-09-02 CoinDesk report lists Ledger among "recently listed" companies with weak aftermarket performance (CoinDesk). I found no …
• L299 [UNVERIFIED] September 2026: phishing from a compromised email provider. Attackers sent fake "Critical Security Alert: STM32 Entropy Vulnerability" emails (iSec News). The alleged flaw is the attackers' invention, not a confirmed vulnerability. SPARK-SEARCH ONLY: a headline says a "Brevo breach …
• L361 [SPARK-REJECTED] 2025-05-23 · A shareholder proposed a securities-fraud class action in E.D. Pa. over the breach and a UK fine (SPARK-REJECTED, see §12) · Law360
• L362 [SPARK-REJECTED] 2025-10 · The breach attacker swapped about $5M DAI to USDC, according to ZachXBT. The funds were stolen customer assets (SPARK-REJECTED) · Yahoo Finance, 2025-10-02
• L363 [UNVERIFIED] Jan 2025 · Solana withdrawals delayed 14–24+ hours. Users demanded proof of reserves, and some speculated (unverified) that customer SOL was staked without consent · Coinpaprika, 2025-01-22
• L448 [CONTESTED] CONTESTED: did Kraken mix customer and company money? Kraken denied these allegations (Wikipedia)). The SEC's 2023 complaint alleged (complaint ¶¶2, 210–221):
• L467 [SPARK-REJECTED] May 2025. Kraken and Binance reportedly fought off Coinbase-style attempts to bribe support staff (SPARK-REJECTED) (PYMNTS citing Bloomberg, 2025-05-18).
• L469 [CONTESTED/UNVERIFIED] June 2024 (unverified). CertiK researchers reportedly used a Kraken deposit bug to withdraw about $3M, then disputed with Kraken whether this was a bug bounty or extortion. The funds were reportedly returned. No source was fetched today.
• L501 [UNVERIFIED] Kraken Financial. Got a Wyoming special purpose depository institution charter in September 2020 (Wikipedia)). Kraken says it got a Federal Reserve master account on 2026-03-04, "the first digital asset bank" to do so (Kraken blog). The Fed's own record was not checked **(unverified …
• L534 [UNVERIFIED] Ledger · $69–$399 · network fee. Third-party swap fees in app (not researched) · Recover subscription optional, $9.99 a month at launch (unverified) · §3
• L573 [UNVERIFIED] Proposed reporting on unhosted wallets. In December 2020 FinCEN proposed that banks and MSBs keep records and verify identities for some transfers to and from unhosted wallets (85 FR 83840). It was never finalised. FinCEN withdrew it as of 2026-10-06 and said it "will not take any …
• L617 [CONTESTED] Ledger Recover showed the firmware can export the seed: a "backdoor" · Critics in May 2023, incl. Laurence E. Day and Pavol Rusnak (Yahoo, 2023-05-19) · CONTESTED. Ledger says it is opt-in, PIN-gated and computed in the secure element (Ledger blog). Both sides agree the user must trust …
• L618 [CONTESTED] Closed-source secure elements (Ledger) can't be independently verified. Open-source designs (Trezor) are safer · Trezor/SatoshiLabs and open-source advocates. Trezor markets the Safe 7's "auditable" TROPIC01 as an answer (Trezor) · CONTESTED. Trezor's own older open designs were physically …
• L619 [CONTESTED] Pre-generated cards like Ballet's are only as safe as the factory · Reviewer (Mantripping, 2026); also implied by BIP38's design notes · CONTESTED. Ballet says no single facility or person has both halves (2FKG). No public audit found
• L621 [CONTESTED] Coinbase customers would be unsecured creditors in a bankruptcy · Coinbase's own 10-Q risk factor, May 2022 · CONTESTED / superseded. Current terms rely on UCC Article 8. Untested in a Coinbase insolvency
• L624 [FRINGE] Exchanges run fractional reserves · Users demanding proof of reserves after FTX (Coinpaprika, 2025-01-22) · FRINGE / unproven for Coinbase. Kraken publishes reserve reviews (102.9% BTC, 2026-06-30) but admits their limits
• L625 [SPARK-REJECTED/FRINGE] The July 2025 move of $8.6B in 14-year-dormant bitcoin might be "the largest heist in human history" · Conor Grogan, Coinbase head of product, who said he was "speculating on straws" (Cointelegraph, 2025-07-05) · FRINGE / speculative. No hack confirmed. SPARK-REJECTED
• L627 [UNVERIFIED] Ledger has already gone public · CoinDesk aside, 2026-09-02 · Inconsistent with the May 2026 report that Ledger paused its IPO. Unverified
• L628 [UNVERIFIED] A new 471,000-record Ledger customer database is for sale · Anonymous forum seller, September 2026 · Unverified. Possibly recycled 2020 data
• L646 [FRINGE] Cointelegraph: "Bitcoin whale transfer, hack possibility, Coinbase exec speculates" · low score (0.18) · Speculative. Kept in §11 as FRINGE
• L648 [UNVERIFIED] cryptowisser.com Trezor prices (Trezor One €69, Model T €149) · facts dropped: "quote_absent" · Old prices for discontinued models. Current prices are in §4. Treat as historical (unverified)
• L661 [UNVERIFIED] "Coinbase is licensed as a money transmitter in 48 U.S. states, including New York's BitLicense and Montana licenses" (from a cryptomaniaks.com review) · Rejected by its own verifier: "Not supported by the cited evidence" · Coinbase's 10-K says licences are held "in the states where such …
• L664 [CONTESTED/UNVERIFIED] Ledger's 2020 breach came "through its e-commerce partner Shopify" · "partially supported" · CONTESTED. Ledger blamed an exposed API key on its e-commerce/marketing database (Ledger). Shopify ran the store and was sued alongside Ledger in Baton (9th Cir.). Whether Shopify staff caused the …
• L667 [CONTESTED] Ledger "Clear Signing" displays transactions inside the secure element, while Trezor relies on "Blockaid" · "partially supported" · CONTESTED. The source is Ledger's own "Ledger vs Trezor 2026" article, i.e. a competitor
• L669 [UNVERIFIED] Kraken+ costs $4.99 a month (fee-free up to $10,000 a month). Coinbase One costs $49.99 a year · stated (source: Kraken's own "Kraken vs Coinbase" page) · The Kraken+ $10,000 waiver matches Kraken's fee page. Both prices are unverified, and the Coinbase One price comes from a competitor
• L680 [UNVERIFIED] Ledger: the current Ledger Recover price (only the 2023 launch price, unverified). How Baton v. Ledger ended after remand. Confirmation of the October 2023 Recover launch date and the 2018 Rashid research. The cause of the CryptoBilis losses, which is still developing.

Federal law and KYC/AML

legislation/us-federal-fincen.md (19)

• L79 [CONTESTED] Status: in effect and listed on FinCEN's guidance page. It is contested in court and politically (see section 13).
• L102 [UNVERIFIED] Status: in effect. Whether a statutory four-year update has been issued is (unverified).
• L199 [CONTESTED/UNVERIFIED] Contested: proposing to "clarify" the definition implies the original 1995 text did not plainly cover CVC. Industry commentators have argued this point. The specific commentators were not collected for this file (unverified).
• L201 [UNVERIFIED] International standard. The FATF's Recommendation 16 "travel rule" for virtual asset service providers is the international counterpart (not retrieved; unverified here).
• L213 [CONTESTED] Non-custodial wallet software developer; anonymizing software supplier · No, per FinCEN guidance. This is contested in DOJ prosecutions; see section 13. · FIN-2019-G001
• L240 [UNVERIFIED] Harmon pleaded guilty and was sentenced in the D.D.C. case (unverified; plea about 2021, sentence about 2024).
• L241 [UNVERIFIED] Vinnik pleaded guilty in the US and was later released to Russia in a 2025 prisoner exchange (unverified).
• L242 [UNVERIFIED] Binance's founder Changpeng Zhao was pardoned by President Trump, as reported in a 2025-12-15 news article (Yahoo Finance; see INDEX). The pardon does not appear to undo FinCEN's civil consent order with the company (unverified legal reading).
• L250 [UNVERIFIED] IRS · Tax: virtual currency is treated as property (Notice 2014-21). Information reporting. · (1) Examines non-bank MSBs, including crypto exchangers, for BSA compliance under delegated authority (31 CFR 1010.810(b)(8)); FinCEN imposes the penalties. (2) FBAR enforcement is …
• L253 [UNVERIFIED] OFAC (Treasury) · Sanctions: blocks property of designated persons, including crypto addresses; separate from the BSA · October 2021 Sanctions Compliance Guidance for the Virtual Currency Industry. Joint or coordinated actions with FinCEN: Bittrex (credit), Binance (parallel OFAC …
• L275 [CONTESTED/UNVERIFIED] FinCEN's 2019 guidance says non-custodial and anonymizing software providers are not money transmitters, so DOJ's prosecutions of Samourai Wallet and Tornado Cash contradict it · Defence lawyers, privacy advocates (e.g. Coin Center), parts of the crypto press · The guidance does say an …
• L276 [CONTESTED/UNVERIFIED] FinCEN officials told prosecutors in August 2023 that Samourai's non-custodial model meant it likely was not an MSB, and prosecutors at first did not disclose this to the defence · Reported in syndicated news (Yahoo Finance, 2025-07-30), based on defence filings · The reporting is not confirmed …
• L277 [UNVERIFIED] Samourai sentences were excessive and show "Operation Choke Point 2.0" continuing under Trump · Reason (Joakim Book, opinion, 2025-11-07) · Rodriguez got 5 years and a $250,000 fine; Hill 4 years (headline only, unverified). Trump said on about 2025-12-15 he would "look at" a pardon. No …
• L278 [CONTESTED/UNVERIFIED] The 2020 unhosted-wallet rule was warrantless surveillance of non-customers and was rushed through with a 15-day holiday comment period · Coin Center and the crypto industry. The claim that it was a "midnight rule" pushed by outgoing Treasury Secretary Mnuchin circulated widely in 2020 …
• L279 [CONTESTED] The 2023 mixing proposal exceeded section 311, which is limited to transactions "within, or involving, a jurisdiction outside" the US, and denied due process · Coin Center (Jason Somensatto, 2026-10-05) · FinCEN withdrew the proposal citing the "chilling effect" concern, not the legal argument …
• L281 [CONTESTED] The Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (section 604 of the Senate CLARITY text) would stop money-transmitter rules applying to non-custodial developers. Supporters say it "codifies existing federal policy"; opponents say it would "materially impair criminal investigations". · Supporters: Sen. …
• L282 [CONTESTED] FinCEN guidance is "regulation by guidance" and not binding, especially now that courts no longer defer to agencies (Chevron overruled by Loper Bright, 2024) · Industry lawyers and commentators · FinCEN itself says the 2019 guidance creates no new requirements and only applies existing rules. …
• L287 [UNVERIFIED] FinCEN's withdrawal is "withdrawn, not reversed": a cosmetic change · AInvest headline (not read) · Headline only · Unverified commentary
• L337 [UNVERIFIED] No FinCEN proposal to add virtual currency to the FBAR was found. That absence was not confirmed beyond FinCEN's notice list and the Federal Register API.

legislation/us-federal-fincen-wallet-registration.md (5)

• L172 [CONTESTED] Contested view: the same Yahoo Finance piece argues the withdrawal leaves flows from self-custody wallets into US on-ramps unmonitored at the federal level, citing Chinese capital-flight and laundering data. That is the author's analysis. The piece also says the notices were posted "on a …
• L179 [UNVERIFIED] Opposition: I found no on-record statement from a member of Congress or an advocacy group opposing the withdrawal in the coverage I checked (unverified absence).
• L253 [UNVERIFIED] Status 2026-10-09: cloture failed on 2026-09-15 (above). No later Senate vote on H.R. 3633 appears in the Senate roll-call list. Yahoo/Barakat reports that Sen. Thom Tillis entered a motion to reconsider (unverified). Not law.
• L278 [UNVERIFIED] Other states (unverified). The Satoshi Action Fund also claims similar laws in Louisiana (HB 488), Missouri, Utah (HB 230), South Carolina and others (satoshiaction.io/work). I have not checked these against the legislatures; the parallel state files should.
• L313 [UNVERIFIED] State "Bitcoin rights" laws other than Kentucky HB 701 and Oklahoma HB 3594 (signing only) are unverified.

legislation/us-kyc-aml-selling-bitcoin.md (9)

• L9 [UNVERIFIED] Date checked: 2026-10-09. Each item gives its own date. "(unverified)" means it was not confirmed against a primary source.
• L201 [UNVERIFIED] In 2020 FinCEN and the Federal Reserve also proposed lowering the cross-border threshold to $250. It has not been finalized (unverified; no final rule was found in the Federal Register search done for this file).
• L244 [CONTESTED] Contested at the state level: State v. Espinoza, No. 3D16-1860 (Fla. 3d DCA 2019-01-30). A Miami trial judge dismissed charges in July 2016 against a LocalBitcoins seller, holding that bitcoin is not "money". The appeals court reversed: "even a person in the business of selling his …
• L287 [UNVERIFIED] Other NY licences and bonds. Transmitting dollars is also governed by NY Banking Law Article 13-B. Section 641 requires a licence to engage "in the business of receiving money for transmission" (nysenate.gov, last updated 2014-09-22). Section 643 requires a **surety bond or securities …
• L370 [UNVERIFIED] AARP counted about 25 states with "some protective action" and 18 with comprehensive laws (AARP article on Indiana, 2026). Another report said "only eight states and Washington, D.C. have not enacted any legislation" (Yahoo, 2026-04-29). These counts conflict and are unverified. The table …
• L391 [UNVERIFIED] Federal · Crypto ATM Fraud Prevention Act (Sen. Durbin, 2025) · New users $2,000/day and $10,000 per 14 days; refunds when a police report is filed within 30 days · Introduced Feb 2025; no enactment found (unverified) · NBC News 2025-02-25
• L414 [UNVERIFIED] Robert Faiella and Charlie Shrem (BitInstant) · S.D.N.Y., 2014 · Faiella sold bitcoin to Silk Road users; Shrem's exchange supplied him · Shrem pleaded guilty 2014-09-04 to aiding and abetting an unlicensed money-transmitting business; sentenced 2014-12-19 to 2 years and $950,000 …
• L432 [UNVERIFIED] NYDFS pages (Cloudflare), California leginfo and DFPI, Justia, CoinATMRadar, DEA and most justice.gov press-release pages blocked automated fetching. Items from those sources are marked as news or unverified.
• L436 [UNVERIFIED] Status of the federal Crypto ATM Fraud Prevention Act in 2026 was not confirmed.

State summaries

legislation/us-states-A-M-summary.md (7)

• L28 [UNVERIFIED] AK · Alaska · AS 06.55 = UMSA. SB 86, ch. 48 SLA 26: full MTMA with VC title, effective 2027-07-01 · Yes, by regulation: 3 AAC 13.005–.006, NMLS licensing since 2023-01-01 · Yes. SB 249, ch. 50 SLA 26, effective 2026-10-01: $1,000/day and $10,000/30 days; 10% fee cap; …
• L30 [UNVERIFIED] AR · Arkansas · Ark. Code § 23-55, still titled UMSA; amended to full MTMA effective 2023-08-01; no VC title · Yes: "money transmission" includes "converting virtual currency" · Yes. Act 557 of 2025 (HB1467): new $2,000/day, existing $7,500/day; fees capped at "$5 or 18%"; 72-hour …
• L37 [UNVERIFIED] HI · Hawaii · HRS ch. 489D: full MTMA, no VC title · No: "unregulated business" since the Digital Currency Innovation Lab ended on 2024-06-30 · Partial ban. HB 1642, Act 224, from 2026-10-01: kiosks may not accept US currency (cash or card) · SB 2757 (digital-asset charters): not enacted …
• L43 [UNVERIFIED] KY · Kentucky · KRS 286.11 (no MTMA) · Unclear; HB 701 (2025) exempts developers, crypto-to-crypto swaps and nodes · Yes. SB 189, Acts 2026 ch. 126 (KRS 286 Subtitle 13): $2,000/day; $10,500 total for a new user; 72-hour wait or refund; greater of $5 or 18% · **HB 701, Acts 2025 ch. …
• L47 [UNVERIFIED] MA · Massachusetts · G.L. c. 169B (Acts 2024 ch. 312): full MTMA, effective 2026-01-01, no VC title · Not expressly · None statewide; about 20 towns ban kiosks. S.3048 "SCAM Act" ban is in Senate Ways and Means; the Senate's economic development ban amendment has an unverified …
• L96 [FRINGE/CONTESTED] Each state note has a section 7 for contested and fringe claims. Recurring themes:
• L108 [CONTESTED] Sound money and anti-CBDC laws (Missouri's Constitutional Money Act, Florida's HB 999 gold and silver law, Montana's SB 265 CBDC ban, Michigan's HB 4511): supporters call them protections; critics call them symbolic or constitutionally doubtful under the federal monetary power. Contested.

legislation/us-states-N-Z-summary.md (6)

• L85 [UNVERIFIED] Uniform Money Services Act (UMSA): Washington's RCW 19.230 is expressly "the uniform money services act"; South Carolina's MTMA statute is titled the "South Carolina Uniform Money Services Act" (renamed 2024); New Mexico's NMSA 58-32 is indexed as the Uniform Money Services Act …
• L86 [UNVERIFIED] URVCBA (Uniform Regulation of Virtual-Currency Businesses Act): no N–Z jurisdiction is known to have enacted it in full; Rhode Island's 2019 customer-property and disclosure sections (§§ 19-14.3-3.5, -3.6) closely track it. The Uniform Law Commission's enactment tracker is JavaScript-only …
• L96 [UNVERIFIED] Industry contraction: the Coinme 34-state order (2026-10-08) requires it to stop kiosk operations by 2027-01-01; news reports Bitcoin Depot went bankrupt in 2026 and its machines were sold off (headline only — unverified).
• L134 [UNVERIFIED] "Right to mine" / Blockchain Basics — promoted nationally by Bitcoin advocacy groups (attribution to specific groups unverified); opponents cite noise, grid strain and loss of local control. (ok, ut, nh, sc)
• L136 [FRINGE/CONTESTED] Interpretive split on whether Bitcoin is "money" — Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, DC (yes) vs. Texas, Virginia, South Carolina (no). Not fringe, but contested and consequential.
• L144 [UNVERIFIED] Several bill statuses come from NCSL's 2026 tracker (last updated 2026-03-25) where official pages were JavaScript-only (Virginia LIS, Wyoming web front end, some Rhode Island and Oklahoma pages); these are marked "(final status unverified)" in the state notes.

State notes

legislation/us-state-ak.md (4)

• L8 [UNVERIFIED] Money-transmitter law today · AS 06.55, which is Alaska's enactment of the Uniform Money Services Act (UMSA) (in force since 2008 (year unverified)), plus regulations at 3 AAC 13
• L90 [UNVERIFIED] Strategic bitcoin reserve: no reserve bill turned up in the legislature's "INVESTMENTS" or "SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY" subject lists for the 34th Legislature (a keyword search of all bills was not possible, so treat as unverified).
• L94 [UNVERIFIED] Governor's non-signature. Both bills became law without Governor Dunleavy's signature. We found no veto message or statement explaining why; any claim about his reasons is unverified.
• L104 [UNVERIFIED] The year the UMSA took effect in Alaska is from memory (unverified).

legislation/us-state-al.md (2)

• L63 [UNVERIFIED] No Alabama-specific guidance found. A search of the Alabama Department of Revenue site for "virtual currency" on 2026-10-09 returned no results (ALDOR search). Alabama income tax generally follows federal concepts, under which IRS Notice 2014-21 treats bitcoin as property. *(Unverified that …
• L73 [UNVERIFIED] 2023-06-06 · The ASC issued a show-cause order to Coinbase over its staking program, alongside other states. CryptoSlate's archive lists "Alabama drops case against Coinbase" on 2025-04-23 (the dismissal itself is unverified on an official page). · ASC; CryptoSlate profile

legislation/us-state-ar.md (6)

• L29 [UNVERIFIED] History: Arkansas enacted the UMSA in 2007 (year unverified). CSBS records MTMA amendments effective 2023-08-01. We did not find which act added the explicit virtual-currency language, or when.
• L30 [UNVERIFIED] Arkansas Code title 4, chapter 11 ("Virtual Currency"): search-result snippets show § 4-11-104 ("Rights in virtual currency") as repealed in the 2025 code. We could not open the chapter (Justia blocked automated access), so what it held and why it was repealed are unverified. One …
• L60 [UNVERIFIED] No Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration guidance on virtual currency was found (we did not search the DFA site; unverified). Arkansas income tax generally starts from federal concepts.
• L69 [UNVERIFIED] Pending · We found no 8th Circuit decision in either appeal in CourtListener's opinion search on 2026-10-09 (unverified that none has issued). ·
• L78 [UNVERIFIED] Bill on mines near military bases (2025) · Restrict crypto mines near military installations · Reported "scrapped" (TheStreet headline; article blocked, bill number not identified) · unverified
• L82 [UNVERIFIED] Strategic bitcoin reserve: no reserve bill was found for Arkansas (our search was limited; unverified).

legislation/us-state-az.md (3)

• L33 [UNVERIFIED] Is virtual currency covered? The statute does not say. Kiosk operators are defined in § 6-1236 by reference to "virtual currency business activity" through a "money transmission kiosk". We could not retrieve DIFI's published position: difi.az.gov returned HTTP 403 to automated requests on …
• L75 [UNVERIFIED] Claim to check: Cryptonews (republished by Yahoo) says Arizona "permits state agencies to accept cryptocurrency payments through approved service providers". We found no such statute, and the Governor vetoed SB1024 (2025), the bill that would have allowed it (see section 6). Treat the …
• L126 [UNVERIFIED] Any 2024 Arizona laws on home bitcoin mining or "right to mine" were not checked (unverified whether any exist).

legislation/us-state-ca.md (4)

• L55 [UNVERIFIED] Executive Order N-9-22 (Gov. Newsom, May 2022) · Directed agencies to develop a blockchain and crypto framework · Issued 2022 (not retrieved; from memory, unverified) ·
• L71 [UNVERIFIED] California personal income tax generally follows federal treatment, under which bitcoin is property and gains are taxed as ordinary income at California rates, since California has no capital-gains rate. (We did not retrieve FTB guidance; unverified.)
• L72 [UNVERIFIED] Sales and use tax: buying bitcoin itself is not a sale of tangible personal property (CDTFA guidance not retrieved; unverified).
• L108 [UNVERIFIED] Exodus fears. Some commentators predicted a "BitLicense-style exodus". The California Blockchain Advocacy Coalition's Joe Ciccolo told Decrypt that "marginal or under-resourced players may choose to exit California" (quoted in TechTimes). Whether firms actually left is unverified.

legislation/us-state-co.md (1)

• L63 [UNVERIFIED] Colorado income tax starts from federal taxable income, so bitcoin is taxed as property (we did not retrieve Department of Revenue guidance; general conformity is unverified for crypto specifically).

legislation/us-state-ct.md (2)

• L64 [CONTESTED/UNVERIFIED] Disputed claim: "Connecticut has banned kiosks." crypto.news's kiosk page says Connecticut enacted an outright ban "effective Jan 2026" (crypto.news). We found no such law. The current statute regulates kiosks rather than banning them, AARP lists Connecticut as "Law enacted" with limits …
• L68 [UNVERIFIED] No Connecticut Department of Revenue Services crypto guidance was retrieved (unverified; Connecticut income tax starts from federal AGI).

legislation/us-state-dc.md (4)

• L17 [UNVERIFIED] Enforcement · District of Columbia v. Athena Bitcoin, Inc. (D.C. Superior Court, filed 2025-09-02): AG alleges 93% of deposits in Athena's DC kiosks in its first five months were fraud, median victim age 71, hidden fees/markups up to ~25% · Complaint under the Consumer Protection …
• L40 [UNVERIFIED] DC individual income tax starts from federal AGI (general knowledge; unverified). No DC Office of Tax and Revenue guidance on virtual currency was found (gap).
• L52 [UNVERIFIED] United States v. Harmon (D.D.C.) — Helix mixer operator charged with, among other counts, unlicensed money transmission under the DC MTA; the 2020 opinion held Bitcoin is "money" under the MTA. (Harmon later pleaded guilty, per widely reported coverage — unverified here.) [S3]
• L60 [UNVERIFIED] "93% of deposits were scams." This is the Attorney General's allegation from its own analysis; Athena disputes the suit (news coverage reported Athena's denial — not read; unverified). [S4]

legislation/us-state-de.md (4)

• L27 [UNVERIFIED] Current law: 5 Del. C. ch. 23. Unverified whether the OSBC currently requires a licence for virtual-currency-only transmission; we found no OSBC guidance in this pass.
• L45 [UNVERIFIED] 2017 amendments to the Delaware General Corporation Law ("Delaware Blockchain Initiative") · Let corporations keep stock ledgers on distributed ledgers · Enacted 2017 (from memory; not retrieved, unverified) ·
• L63 [UNVERIFIED] Delaware has no sales tax. Its personal income tax starts from federal AGI, so bitcoin gains are taxed as income (DOR crypto guidance not retrieved; unverified).
• L79 [UNVERIFIED] Delaware as a "crypto incorporation hub." The 2017 DGCL blockchain amendments are often cited as a model. Whether they produced actual use is unverified.

legislation/us-state-fl.md (3)

• L50 [UNVERIFIED] Office of Fintech Policy (2023) and Financial Technology Sandbox (2025) · Fintech promotion · Reported by BeInCrypto via Yahoo; unverified · Yahoo
• L69 [UNVERIFIED] HB 999 (2025) revised the sales-tax exemption for gold and silver coin. Whether buying bitcoin is subject to sales tax was not checked (unverified).
• L101 [CONTESTED] "Legal tender" for gold and silver (HB 999). Sound-money advocates promoted this as restoring constitutional money. Critics argue that states cannot make legal tender under Article I, § 10 of the US Constitution, which says no state shall make "any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender". …

legislation/us-state-ga.md (1)

• L42 [UNVERIFIED] HB 811 (2016) · DBF authority over virtual currency · Enacted 2016 (from memory; not retrieved, unverified) ·

legislation/us-state-hi.md (4)

• L59 [UNVERIFIED] No Hawaii Department of Taxation crypto guidance was retrieved (gap). Hawaii income tax generally conforms to the federal Internal Revenue Code. How the general excise tax applies to crypto transactions is unverified.
• L72 [UNVERIFIED] SB 2757 · Digital asset charters · S.D. 1 exists; deferred by the House CPC committee per tracker; not enacted (final status unverified) · Bitcoin Laws snapshot
• L73 [UNVERIFIED] SB 3184 · Digital assets · Referred; not enacted (unverified) · Bitcoin Laws snapshot
• L81 [UNVERIFIED] "Unregulated" crypto businesses. The DFI's own wording ("unregulated business") is unusual. Consumer advocates see a protection gap. Industry sees freedom from the 2016–2024 money-transmitter barrier, which led Coinbase to leave Hawaii in 2017 *(the Coinbase departure is from memory; …

legislation/us-state-ia.md (1)

• L53 [UNVERIFIED] Background: SF 2296 "requir[es] crypto-ATM operators to hold money-transmission licenses, extending a 2025 law" according to Digital Money Times (2026-09-19 opinion). The IDOB already read SF 449 that way in 2025, so treat the 2026 description as partly unverified.

legislation/us-state-il.md (4)

• L17 [UNVERIFIED] 2017 IDFPR position: under the old TOMA, virtual currency was not "money" (that guidance was not retrieved; widely reported, so unverified here).
• L40 [UNVERIFIED] Blockchain Technology Act, 205 ILCS 730 (2019) · Recognises blockchain records and smart contracts; limits local taxation or regulation of blockchain use · Enacted 2019 (not retrieved; unverified details) ·
• L64 [UNVERIFIED] No IDOR crypto guidance was retrieved (gap). Illinois income tax starts from federal AGI. The Blockchain Technology Act restricts local taxation of blockchain use (unverified detail).
• L72 [UNVERIFIED] — · AARP reports that "a county in Illinois" has banned crypto ATMs; the county is not named · AARP (unverified which county)

legislation/us-state-in.md (1)

• L83 [UNVERIFIED] HB 1217 · Regulation of stablecoins (state licensing) · Committee report "do pass, adopted" (2026-02-19); not enacted (final status unverified; per tracker)

legislation/us-state-ks.md (1)

• L69 [UNVERIFIED] The veto message was not retrieved. Why the Governor vetoed HB 2515 while signing HB 2591 is unverified.

legislation/us-state-ky.md (1)

• L84 [UNVERIFIED] "Blockchain Basics" model laws. HB 701 resembles model bills promoted by bitcoin-advocacy groups such as the Satoshi Action Fund. Supporters call it protection of "freedom to transact" and self-custody. Critics see preemption of local and state regulators and a carve-out for staking from …

legislation/us-state-la.md (4)

• L62 [UNVERIFIED] Fee cap: none found. crypto.news lists Louisiana as having a fee cap (crypto.news), but the statutes reviewed contain no fee cap (our reading). Treat that claim as unverified.
• L64 [UNVERIFIED] Results claimed in secondary sources: "Louisiana's New Crypto Kiosk Law Helps Seniors Recover $200,000 Lost in Scams" (InfoInteract headline; not retrieved, unverified).
• L93 [UNVERIFIED] Sunset repeal without signature. Governor Landry let SB 163 become law without signing. We found no statement explaining why, so motives are unverified.
• L94 [UNVERIFIED] "Blockchain Basics" and pro-mining laws. Bitcoin-advocacy groups have claimed Louisiana as an early "right to mine / right to self-custody" state (2024). We did not verify any such statute in this pass; treat the claim as unverified.

legislation/us-state-ma.md (4)

• L30 [UNVERIFIED] Virtual currency: not expressly included. Whether the DOB treats virtual-currency exchange or custody as licensable under c. 169B is unverified. mass.gov returned HTTP 403 to automated requests, so DOB guidance was not retrieved.
• L45 [UNVERIFIED] Status unverified. As of 2026-10-05, the Cape Cod Times reported the state legislature "has not passed any bills regarding the growing problem" (Yahoo/Cape Cod Times).
• L65 [UNVERIFIED] 2026 · Bitcoin ATM News headline: "Bitcoin Depot: 83% of Large Customers Were Scam Victims", reportedly from the complaint · bitcoinatm.news (not retrieved; unverified)
• L74 [UNVERIFIED] Economic development bill, Senate version (July 2026) · Included a kiosk-ban amendment · Passed the Senate around 2026-07-23; in conference (final outcome unverified)

legislation/us-state-md.md (1)

• L90 [CONTESTED] Fee-only refunds. Maryland refunds only fees on verified fraud, not the principal. Consumer advocates elsewhere (Arizona, Alabama, Florida) secured full-principal refunds for new users. Whether Maryland's limited refund is adequate is disputed; no Maryland-specific critique was retrieved.

legislation/us-state-me.md (1)

• L31 [UNVERIFIED] 2026 unclaimed-property law allowing delivery of digital assets in native form · Reported by Eversheds Sutherland · 2026; bill number not identified (unverified) · JD Supra

legislation/us-state-mi.md (2)

• L29 [UNVERIFIED] No virtual-currency language in the act or in the DIFS FAQ (DIFS FAQ). Whether the DIFS licenses virtual-currency exchanges is unverified.
• L79 [CONTESTED] Bitcoin mining on orphaned wells (HB 4512). Supporters claim mining can use stranded methane and fund well plugging. Environmental critics dispute the climate benefit. No hearing record was retrieved; both claims are contested.

legislation/us-state-mn.md (1)

• L89 [CONTESTED] Conflicting sources on "first" bans. crypto.news's kiosk page lists Connecticut, Vermont and Minnesota as the three ban states in one place, and Indiana, Tennessee and Minnesota in another (crypto.news). The Minnesota statute itself confirms only Minnesota's ban. **Resolved by the …

legislation/us-state-mo.md (2)

• L33 [UNVERIFIED] Whether the Division of Finance licenses non-kiosk virtual-currency exchangers is unverified.
• L85 [CONTESTED] "Constitutional Money Act" and "electronic specie currency." Sound-money advocates hail Missouri for recognizing gold- and silver-backed electronic money as legal tender for public debts. Critics question whether a state can do this, given the federal monetary power, and say it is …

legislation/us-state-ms.md (1)

• L85 [UNVERIFIED] "Mississippi legalizes bitcoin mining." In 2023 crypto media (Blockworks, CryptoDaily) reported a Senate-passed bill to "legalize" bitcoin mining in residential and industrial areas. We found no enacted mining law. The House version, HB 848, was tabled, and the Senate bill's fate was not …

legislation/us-state-mt.md (2)

• L80 [UNVERIFIED] "Montana voted down a $50 million bitcoin reserve." Crypto media headline HB 429 that way (Bitcoin Insider and others). The bill text describes an account for investment in "precious metals and digital assets" as decided by the Board of Investments, so calling it a "bitcoin reserve" …
• L81 [CONTESTED] Mining protections versus energy concerns. In 2025 coverage, Public Service Commission President Brad Molnar called the data-center bill (HB 877) "a deregulation bill". Critics cite winter brownout risk and NorthWestern Energy's $39M cold-snap costs (Daily Montanan). Mining advocates cite …

legislation/us-state-nc.md (2)

• L15 [UNVERIFIED] Model law · Not listed as an MTMA state by CSBS; not UMSA or URVCBA (URVCBA unverified) · CSBS · [S5]
• L58 [UNVERIFIED] North Carolina's individual income tax starts from federal adjusted gross income, so federal property treatment of Bitcoin would carry through (general knowledge; unverified). No NC Department of Revenue guidance on virtual currency was found (gap).

legislation/us-state-nd.md (1)

• L51 [UNVERIFIED] North Dakota income tax starts from federal taxable income, so federal property treatment applies (general knowledge; unverified). No crypto-specific guidance from the Office of State Tax Commissioner was found (gap).

legislation/us-state-ne.md (6)

• L26 [UNVERIFIED] Uniform acts: Nebraska saw URVCBA introductions in past years (unverified); it has not enacted the URVCBA or the Uniform Money Services Act (CSBS and NCSL lists checked show no such enactment). [S8][S7]
• L39 [UNVERIFIED] Digital asset depositories in practice: Telcoin Digital Asset Bank received final charter approval on 2025-11-12 (founder Paul Neuner: "Our charter makes history…"); it was reported to launch a stablecoin, eUSD, at approval, with operations reported starting in December 2025. [N1][N2] …
• L43 [UNVERIFIED] LB 609 (2025) — Controllable Electronic Record Fraud Prevention Act (Sen. Bostar). Approved by the Governor 2025-03-11. The slip law has no emergency clause or operative date, so under Nebraska's general rule it took effect three calendar months after the 2025 session adjourned — about …
• L54 [UNVERIFIED] No Nebraska Department of Revenue guidance on virtual currency was found in this check (gap). Nebraska's individual income tax starts from federal AGI, so federal property treatment of Bitcoin would carry through (general knowledge; unverified).
• L66 [UNVERIFIED] LB 1096 (2026) · PLANT Act / critical infrastructure · Pending per NCSL (March 2026); session ended (final status unverified) · [S7]
• L76 [UNVERIFIED] Kiosk fee cap of 18% is higher than caps in some other states (e.g., 3% proposed in New York — see us-state-ny.md; 12% in North Carolina — see us-state-nc.md) — consumer groups such as AARP have pushed for lower caps; industry argues kiosks have high costs. *Policy dispute; AARP position …

legislation/us-state-nh.md (2)

• L70 [UNVERIFIED] HB 1073 (2026) — timing of the DAO registry; status per NCSL March 2026: pending (final status unverified). [S6]
• L77 [CONTESTED/UNVERIFIED] Blockchain Basic Laws. Advocates (e.g., Satoshi Action Fund, which promoted "Blockchain Basics" bills in many states — attribution unverified) present them as protecting rights; critics argue they pre-empt local control over noisy, power-hungry mining. Contested.

legislation/us-state-nj.md (4)

• L14 [UNVERIFIED] Model law · Not an MTMA state (CSBS 2026-10-08); not a UMSA or URVCBA state (URVCBA unverified) · CSBS · [S5]
• L54 [UNVERIFIED] 2021–2022 · BlockFi · Bureau of Securities cease-and-desist over interest-bearing accounts (2021); later part of a reported $100 million multistate/SEC settlement (2022) — details not re-checked (unverified) · [N2]
• L73 [UNVERIFIED] Coinbase staking dispute. New Jersey says staking-as-a-service is an unregistered security; Coinbase disputes this and the federal SEC dropped its own staking case in 2025 (SEC detail from general knowledge — unverified here). New Jersey's repeated extensions leave the matter unresolved. …
• L88 [UNVERIFIED] [N2] NJ Office of the Attorney General, BlockFi releases (search-result titles only): <link> and <link> — not read (unverified)

legislation/us-state-nm.md (4)

• L14 [UNVERIFIED] Model law · Uniform Money Services Act, NMSA 1978 ch. 58, art. 32 (article title per the Justia index; enactment year — 2016 — from general knowledge, unverified); not an MTMA state (CSBS); not a URVCBA state (unverified) · NMSA 58-32 · [S1][S3][N2]
• L34 [UNVERIFIED] City of Albuquerque — Ordinance O-26-49 (reported 2026-09-11): bans installing, operating or hosting crypto ATMs and cashier-assisted crypto purchases (store staff taking cash for a crypto provider); operators must remove machines within 45 days of the effective date. Councilor Stephanie …
• L38 [UNVERIFIED] New Mexico personal income tax starts from federal adjusted gross income, so federal treatment of Bitcoin gains would flow through (general knowledge; unverified).
• L58 [UNVERIFIED] "90% of Albuquerque crypto ATM transactions are fraud-linked" — cited by city officials; methodology not provided (unverified). Industry groups dispute that most kiosk use is fraudulent (general characterization; no industry source read). [N3]

legislation/us-state-nv.md (1)

• L61 [UNVERIFIED] "Innovation zones." In 2021 the governor proposed letting a blockchain company (Blockchains LLC) form its own local government; it was not enacted (general knowledge; unverified in this check).

legislation/us-state-ny.md (10)

• L17 [UNVERIFIED] MTMA / UMSA / URVCBA · Not an MTMA state (CSBS, 2026-10-08); not a UMSA or URVCBA state (URVCBA unverified) · [S16] · —
• L49 [UNVERIFIED] The 2025 extension bill A 5353 (Kelles) — would have run the moratorium until one year after the GEIS and required PSC/NYISO approval of PoW grid connections — had its enacting clause stricken on 2025-07-16. [S14] Whether the GEIS was completed is not confirmed (gap).
• L74 [UNVERIFIED] 2024-01-11 · Genesis Global Trading, Inc. · reported as $8 million (unverified) · Virtual currency · [S20]
• L76 [UNVERIFIED] 2025-08-07 · Paxos Trust Company, LLC · reported as $26.5 million penalty + $22 million compliance investment (unverified) · Banks and trusts (related to Binance/BUSD) (unverified) · [S20]
• L83 [UNVERIFIED] Earlier, widely reported AG matters (not re-checked here): Bitfinex/Tether $18.5 million settlement (2021); suit against Gemini, Genesis and DCG over Gemini Earn (2023), with a reported $2 billion Genesis settlement (2024). [N1][N2] (details unverified in this check)
• L102 [UNVERIFIED] A 213 / S 3985; S 3801; A 3279 · Task forces on state-issued cryptocurrency / digital currency · Pending (NCSL). A 2024 task-force bill (S 8136) went to the governor in 2024 (final outcome unverified) · [S15]
• L112 [UNVERIFIED] Criminalizing unlicensed crypto business. The Manhattan DA says unlicensed operators lack KYC and SAR controls and enable laundering; an analyst at Nansen warned criminal penalties amid unclear rules could chill legitimate firms. The same report says 18 states already criminalize unlicensed …
• L113 [CONTESTED] PoW mining and climate. Supporters of the moratorium (sponsors Kelles/Parker) frame fossil-fuel PoW mining as conflicting with the state climate law; miners and some unions argued it would cost upstate jobs. Proposed excise tax revenue estimates (>$700 million) are the sponsor's projection. …
• L144 [UNVERIFIED] [N1] UPI, "$2B New York settlement to maximize recoveries for bankrupt crypto firm investors," 2024-05-20. <link> — headline seen only (unverified)
• L145 [UNVERIFIED] [N2] Insurance Journal, "New York Attorney General Triples Size of Crypto Fraud Lawsuit to $3 Billion," 2024-02-14. <link> — headline seen only (unverified)

legislation/us-state-oh.md (5)

• L14 [UNVERIFIED] Model law · Not an MTMA state (CSBS); not UMSA or URVCBA (URVCBA unverified) · CSBS · [S3]
• L36 [UNVERIFIED] History (not re-verified): in 2018 Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel launched OhioCrypto.com to let businesses pay some state taxes in Bitcoin through a payment processor; his successor suspended it in 2019 after a legal review. (General knowledge — unverified in this check.)
• L42 [UNVERIFIED] An "ELDER Act" announced by Reps. Kishman and Miller concerns elder financial exploitation and was surfaced in kiosk searches; its kiosk content was not read (unverified). [N1]
• L47 [UNVERIFIED] Ohio's income tax starts from federal AGI, so federal treatment of Bitcoin would flow through (general knowledge; unverified).
• L70 [UNVERIFIED] Blockchain Basics bills are promoted nationally by Bitcoin advocacy groups as protecting the "right to mine"; opponents raise local noise and grid concerns (attribution of the national campaign unverified).

legislation/us-state-ok.md (6)

• L57 [UNVERIFIED] Oklahoma income tax follows federal AGI (general knowledge; unverified); no Tax Commission crypto guidance found (gap).
• L68 [UNVERIFIED] HB 1891 (2025) · Treasurer may invest in precious metals and digital assets; staking · Pending per NCSL (status unverified) · [S6]
• L69 [UNVERIFIED] SB 325 / SB 2064 · Bitcoin payments for state employees and vendors; licensing exemptions · Pending per NCSL (status unverified) · [S6]
• L70 [UNVERIFIED] SB 1985 (2026) "Strategic Pension Protection Act" · Retirement funds may invest in certain digital assets · Pending per NCSL (status unverified) · [S6]
• L75 [UNVERIFIED] The 2026 session ended in May 2026; Oklahoma bills carry over within the two-year legislature only until the 2026 session ends, so remaining bills are effectively dead (procedure — general knowledge; unverified).
• L80 [UNVERIFIED] "Bitcoin Rights" / "right to mine." Supporters (e.g., Rep. Brian Hill; national groups such as Satoshi Action Fund — attribution unverified) frame HB 3594 as protecting individual rights; critics cite noise and grid concerns from mining. [S2]

legislation/us-state-or.md (4)

• L14 [UNVERIFIED] Model law · Not an MTMA state (CSBS); not UMSA or URVCBA (URVCBA unverified) · CSBS · [S3]
• L17 [UNVERIFIED] Securities enforcement · State of Oregon v. Coinbase — AG suit (filed 2025-04-18) alleging sales of unregistered securities under the Oregon Securities Law; removed to federal court; a magistrate judge recommended remand; Coinbase also sued Gov. Kotek's office over public records · — · …
• L26 [UNVERIFIED] Read together, receiving Bitcoin (a non-legal-tender substitute for currency) for transmission appears to be licensable money transmission. This is an interpretation of the statute text; no DFR statement confirming it was found in this check. The amendment that added clause (b) is widely …
• L64 [UNVERIFIED] "Oregon secretly reversed its position." Coinbase's public-records suit alleges a closed-door policy change engineered with outside counsel; the state's response to that claim was not read (unverified). [N6]

legislation/us-state-pa.md (3)

• L27 [UNVERIFIED] Before 2024: a 2019 DoBS guidance that virtual currency was not "money" under the MTA is reported by law-firm commentary (JD Supra headline "PA Department of Banking and Securities: Virtual Currency is not 'Money'") — not read directly (unverified). [N2]
• L36 [UNVERIFIED] HB 2481 (2023–24) "Bitcoin Rights" · Self-custody and mining protections · Passed House 2024 (reported); died at end of 2024 session (unverified) · —
• L62 [UNVERIFIED] Bitcoin reserve · 2024's HB 2664 (Rep. Mike Cabell) died; 2025 reserve bills reported in news · Not enacted (2025 bill numbers unverified) · [N3]

legislation/us-state-ri.md (15)

• L17 [UNVERIFIED] Tax · S 2021 (2026) would exempt small Bitcoin transactions (up to $5,000/month, $20,000/year) from state income tax · S 2021 · Pending per NCSL (March 2026) (final status unverified) [S11]
• L25 [UNVERIFIED] These two sections closely follow the URVCBA's customer-protection articles; Rhode Island did not adopt the URVCBA as a whole (the URVCBA link is this note's comparison; the Uniform Law Commission tracker could not be read — unverified).
• L46 [UNVERIFIED] 2026 follow-up bills: H 7955 / S 2648 would widen "kiosk operator" to include owners, non-owners and anyone who facilitates kiosk purchases, and widen "kiosk transaction" (NCSL, March 2026). The statute pages read on 2026-10-09 show only the 2025 session laws in their history, suggesting …
• L50 [UNVERIFIED] No Rhode Island Division of Taxation crypto guidance was found (gap). RI income tax starts from federal AGI (general knowledge; unverified).
• L51 [UNVERIFIED] S 2021 (2026) — simplified state income-tax exemption for small Bitcoin transactions up to $5,000 per month or $20,000 per year (pending per NCSL, March 2026); S 451 (2025) had proposed exempting Bitcoin sales under $1,000. Wealth-tax bills (1% of worldwide wealth) also appeared in …
• L61 [UNVERIFIED] H 7955 / S 2648 · Broaden kiosk operator and transaction definitions · Pending → session ended; apparently not enacted (unverified) · [S11]
• L62 [UNVERIFIED] S 2021 · Income-tax exemption for small Bitcoin transactions · Pending → (final unverified) · [S11]
• L63 [UNVERIFIED] H 7413 "State Economic Growth Blockchain Act" · Blockchain depository banks, fintech sandbox · Pending → (final unverified) · [S11]
• L64 [UNVERIFIED] H 7843 · Rhode Island DAO Act (DAOs as LLCs) · Pending → (final unverified) · [S11]
• L65 [UNVERIFIED] H 7957 / S 2196 · No compelled production of private keys · Pending → (final unverified) · [S11]
• L66 [UNVERIFIED] H 7956 / S 2198 · Study commission on blockchain and crypto · Pending → (final unverified) · [S11]
• L67 [UNVERIFIED] H 7595 / S 2361 · 1% wealth tax · Pending → (final unverified) · [S11]
• L68 [UNVERIFIED] H 6007 (2025) · State Digital Asset Retention Act (treasurer may hold/invest in digital assets) · Pending 2025; not enacted (unverified) · [S11]
• L72 [UNVERIFIED] 90-day vs. 14-day refund windows. Rhode Island gives fraud victims 90 days; New Hampshire's 2026 law (as reported) and Oklahoma's give 14 days. Consumer advocates favor longer windows; operators say long windows invite false claims (industry position not read from a source — unverified).
• L73 [UNVERIFIED] Small-transaction tax exemption for Bitcoin (S 2021) is promoted by Bitcoin-as-money advocates (de minimis exemption) and opposed on revenue and fairness grounds (attribution unverified). [S11]

legislation/us-state-sc.md (7)

• L47 [UNVERIFIED] No South Carolina Department of Revenue crypto guidance was found (gap). SC income tax starts from federal taxable income (general knowledge; unverified).
• L53 [UNVERIFIED] No South Carolina crypto enforcement action was located in this check (gap). (South Carolina's securities regulator took part in 2023 multistate staking actions against Coinbase according to widespread reports — unverified here.)
• L65 [UNVERIFIED] H 3304 / H 3442 · CBDC excluded from "money" in UCC; banks barred from CBDC services · Died (per NCSL "pending" March 2026; final status unverified)
• L66 [UNVERIFIED] H 3454 · UCC 2022 amendments · (final status unverified)
• L67 [UNVERIFIED] H 4766 · South Carolina DAO Act · (final status unverified)
• L71 [CONTESTED] "Bitcoin is not a medium of exchange." The AG's 2018 position — Bitcoin is not generally accepted and has no set value — is contested by Bitcoin advocates who point to its use for payments; other regulators (Ohio, Pennsylvania) reached the opposite conclusion. [S2] (compare us-state-oh.md, …
• L73 [UNVERIFIED] Mining "no additional stress on the grid." The statute imposes this duty but does not define how to measure it; critics may see it as unenforceable, supporters as a reasonable condition (no commentary read — unverified).

legislation/us-state-sd.md (4)

• L15 [UNVERIFIED] Crypto ATMs / kiosks · SB 98 (2026) — kiosk operators must be licensed; $1,000/day and $10,000 per 30 days per user (across kiosks and the licensee's other channels); charges capped at 25%; full refund for fraud reported within 90 days with a police/agency report or sworn …
• L32 [UNVERIFIED] HB 1193 (2023) · UCC update excluding CBDC from "money" · Vetoed by Gov. Kristi Noem (2023) (general knowledge; unverified here) · —
• L50 [UNVERIFIED] Effective date: news reported the law "takes effect" (headline, likely July 1, 2026 — South Dakota's default effective date) (unverified). [N1]
• L74 [UNVERIFIED] 25% fee cap. South Dakota's cap is among the highest of the state kiosk laws read (compare 12% in North Carolina, 15% in Oklahoma, 18% in Nebraska); consumer advocates argue such caps still permit very high charges, while operators argue costs are high. *Comparison is this note's; positions …

legislation/us-state-tn.md (5)

• L15 [UNVERIFIED] Bitcoin under licensing law · A TDFI memo on virtual currency dated 2015-12-16 exists but could not be retrieved; its conclusion is unverified · — · (gap)
• L25 [UNVERIFIED] Virtual currency guidance: TDFI's "Virtual Currency Guidance" page links a 2014-08-08 consumer advisory (Commissioner Greg Gonzales: virtual currencies are volatile, can be stolen, transactions are irreversible) — saved. A TDFI "Memo on Virtual Currency" dated 2015-12-16 appears in …
• L61 [UNVERIFIED] HB 2060 / SB 2522 · Banks may not convert consumer money into a digital currency without written consent · Died (per NCSL "pending"; unverified) · [S8]
• L62 [UNVERIFIED] HB 1827 / SB 2053 · Local approval of digital-asset-mining facility locations · Died (unverified) · [S8]
• L63 [UNVERIFIED] HB 916 / SB 590 · Report on digital-currency campaign contributions · Died (unverified) · [S8]

legislation/us-state-tx.md (5)

• L16 [UNVERIFIED] UMSA / URVCBA · Texas's older ch. 151 Money Services Act was based on the Uniform Money Services Act (not re-verified); not a URVCBA state (unverified) · — · —
• L49 [UNVERIFIED] December 2025: a second $5 million purchase was reported, bringing holdings to about $10 million (Forbes headline, 2025-12-17; article blocked — details unverified). [N3]
• L89 [UNVERIFIED] Bitcoin reserve as an inflation hedge vs. speculation. Sponsors and the Texas Blockchain Council present the reserve as a hedge and a signal of leadership; critics call it speculation with public money (no specific critic's statement was read in this check — unverified attribution). The …
• L90 [CONTESTED] Miners and the ERCOT grid. Miners say interruptible loads stabilize the grid and are paid for curtailing in emergencies; critics say demand-response payments are a subsidy and that mining raises prices. SB 1929 only requires registration. [S8] Contested; payment figures not verified here.
• L91 [CONTESTED] "Kiosks are a scam pipeline" vs. "legitimate access to Bitcoin." Committee chair and FBI loss figures vs. industry statements that most kiosk users are legitimate; the industry was not quoted in the source read. [N2] Contested.

legislation/us-state-ut.md (5)

• L13 [UNVERIFIED] Money-transmitter licence for Bitcoin · Utah Money Transmitter Act (Title 7, ch. 25). Whether Bitcoin-only activity is licensed was not confirmed from DFI sources (gap). Since 2025, running nodes, developing blockchain software and operating crypto-to-crypto exchange businesses or …
• L34 [UNVERIFIED] HB 357 (2023) · Utah DAO Act · Enacted 2023 (unverified bill number) · —
• L43 [UNVERIFIED] HB 474 (2026) · UCC modifications (hybrid transactions etc.) · "To governor" per NCSL (March 2026) (final unverified) · [S7]
• L59 [UNVERIFIED] Utah's flat income tax starts from federal AGI (general knowledge; unverified); no Utah State Tax Commission crypto publication was found (gap).
• L72 [UNVERIFIED] Mining protections (no stricter noise or zoning rules) are promoted as "right to mine"; local residents near mines elsewhere have complained of noise (no Utah-specific complaint source read — unverified).

legislation/us-state-va.md (5)

• L18 [UNVERIFIED] Bank custody · Banks may provide virtual-currency custody · HB 263 (2022) (general knowledge; unverified) · —
• L33 [UNVERIFIED] HB 263 (2022) · Banks may custody virtual currency · Enacted 2022 (unverified here) · —
• L45 [UNVERIFIED] Law-firm summary (Orrick, 2026-04-24): enacted 2026-04-13; applications open 2027-03-01; limits of $2,000 per transaction for new users, $5,000 for existing users, $10,000 per month for all users; $25,000 surety bond; government ID; BSA/AML compliance with blockchain analytics …
• L50 [UNVERIFIED] Virginia income tax follows federal AGI (general knowledge; unverified). 2025 HB 2428 (treat crypto-mining facilities like data centers for personal property tax classification) failed. No Department of Taxation crypto guidance was found (gap). [S4]
• L70 [UNVERIFIED] No refund of principal. Virginia's law refunds fees, not the stolen principal (as reported) — weaker than New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont or South Dakota. Consumer advocates are likely to push for more (forecast — unverified). [N1]

legislation/us-state-vt.md (4)

• L32 [UNVERIFIED] 12 V.S.A. § 1913 · Blockchain records — evidence/authentication; definition of "blockchain technology" · In force (enacted 2016 — year unverified) · [S1][S2]
• L57 [UNVERIFIED] Vermont income tax starts from federal taxable income (general knowledge; unverified); no Vermont Department of Taxes crypto guidance was found (gap).
• L73 [UNVERIFIED] Vermont's kiosk rules are among the strictest short of a ban (moratorium, photos, phone screening of seniors). Privacy advocates could object to photographing every customer; industry argues the moratorium and screening make kiosks uneconomic; consumer advocates (AARP) supported such …
• L74 [UNVERIFIED] Age-based screening (over-60 phone call) is a deliberate age distinction; whether it raises age-discrimination concerns has not been tested in court (analysis; unverified).

legislation/us-state-wa.md (2)

• L14 [UNVERIFIED] Model law · Uniform Money Services Act — RCW 19.230.900: "This chapter may be known and cited as the uniform money services act" (2003 c 287, effective 2003-10-01). Not an MTMA state per CSBS; not a URVCBA state (URVCBA unverified) · RCW 19.230; CSBS · [S1][S10]
• L46 [UNVERIFIED] Capital gains excise tax, RCW 82.87.040: from 2022-01-01, 7% of an individual's Washington capital gains on the sale or exchange of long-term capital assets; from 2025-01-01, an additional 2.90% on the portion over $1,000,000. [S8] DOR's capital gains page lists "stocks, bonds, business …

legislation/us-state-wi.md (7)

• L15 [UNVERIFIED] Model law · Full MTMA (Wis. Stat. §§ 217.01 et seq.; SB 668, 2023 Act 267 (Act number unverified)), effective 2025-01-01; no virtual-currency title · CSBS · [S3][S4]
• L18 [UNVERIFIED] Bitcoin in state funds · The State of Wisconsin Investment Board held spot-Bitcoin ETF shares in 2024 and reportedly sold them in 2025 (unverified in this check) · — · —
• L37 [UNVERIFIED] 2025 Wisconsin Act 226 (2025 Assembly Bill 968) — creates Wis. Stat. § 217.12 "Virtual currency kiosks." Introduced 2026-01-30; Assembly passed 2026-02-18; Senate passed 33-0 on 2026-03-17; enacted 2026-04-08; published 2026-04-09. With no stated effective date, a Wisconsin act …
• L51 [UNVERIFIED] Wisconsin income tax starts from federal AGI (general knowledge; unverified); no Wisconsin Department of Revenue crypto publication was found (gap).
• L68 [UNVERIFIED] AB 251 (2025) · Strategic Bitcoin reserve (bill number from memory — unverified) · Not enacted
• L72 [CONTESTED] "Virtual currency may be traded for free in online exchanges." Wisconsin's mandatory kiosk warning tells customers this; operators say kiosk fees pay for cash handling, compliance and locations. The statement is a legislative message, not a neutral price comparison (online exchanges also …
• L74 [UNVERIFIED] Pension-fund Bitcoin exposure. The State of Wisconsin Investment Board's 2024 ETF purchase drew praise from Bitcoin advocates and criticism from others; the reported 2025 sale was framed by some advocates as a mistake (entire item unverified in this check).

legislation/us-state-wv.md (5)

• L14 [UNVERIFIED] Is Bitcoin-only activity licensed? · The 2026 act adds virtual-currency definitions and brings kiosks under licensing explicitly; whether all "virtual currency business activity" now needs a licence was not confirmed from the text read (gap) · — · —
• L31 [UNVERIFIED] SB 670 (2026) · Uniform Protected Series Act ("to governor" per NCSL; included in NCSL's crypto list) · (final status unverified) · [S4]
• L48 [UNVERIFIED] West Virginia income tax starts from federal AGI (general knowledge; unverified). SB 866 (2026) to exempt capital gains on gold, silver and cryptocurrency failed. [S4]
• L71 [UNVERIFIED] "Crypto as legal tender." Repeated West Virginia bills (2025, 2026) to make gold, silver and cryptocurrency legal tender reflect sound-money advocacy; constitutional scholars note states cannot make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts (U.S. Const. art. I, § 10) — …
• L72 [UNVERIFIED] Refund window. West Virginia's 30-day window and new-customer-only refund are narrower than Rhode Island's or Vermont's 90-day rules; consumer advocates generally favor longer windows (general — unverified).

legislation/us-state-wy.md (7)

• L28 [UNVERIFIED] Uniform acts: Wyoming is not known to have adopted the Uniform Money Services Act or the Uniform Regulation of Virtual-Currency Businesses Act (URVCBA). The Uniform Law Commission's enactment tracker could not be read (JavaScript-only), so this is (unverified).
• L49 [UNVERIFIED] SPDIs actually chartered. The Division of Banking says the Banking Board "has approved four SPDI charters thus far" but does not list them on that page. [S16] Two are widely reported: Kraken Financial and Custodia Bank (formerly Avanti). The other two are not named in a source read …
• L53 [UNVERIFIED] FRNT (Frontier Stable Token). First launched in August 2025; available for public purchase on Kraken from 2026-01-07; issued on Arbitrum, Avalanche, Base, Ethereum, Optimism, Polygon and Solana; reserves in cash and short-dated US Treasuries, with interest going to Wyoming's School …
• L78 [UNVERIFIED] Supreme Court: Justice Gorsuch extended the time to file a certiorari petition to 2026-07-11 (application No. 25A1320). [N7] Custodia then petitioned; the Blockchain Association filed an amicus brief in support; as of 2026-08-18 the Court had not agreed to hear the case. [N8][N9] **Current …
• L97 [CONTESTED] "Debanking" / "Operation Choke Point 2.0." Custodia, its founder Caitlin Long, and supporters including Sen. Lummis (as amicus) argue that the Fed's master-account denial was political and that federal agencies worked to cut crypto firms off from banking. The Fed and the bank trade groups …
• L98 [UNVERIFIED] Claims that Wyoming is "the" crypto-law state. Promoters describe Wyoming's 2018–2026 laws as the most complete state framework in the US. The counter-point visible in the record is that Custodia, the SPDI that fought hardest for Fed access, lost in court, while Kraken Financial got an …
• L130 [UNVERIFIED] [N4] Yahoo Finance, "Rep. Waters Presses Kansas City Fed Over Kraken Master Account Approval" (headline seen in search results; article not read). <link> — (unverified beyond headline)