Modern Tools, Old Laws Clash in Crypto Transaction Ban Arguments

How a 1977 law allowing the federal government to ban certain foreign transactions applies to cryptocurrency exchanges took center stage at oral arguments at the Eleventh Circuit Tuesday.

Judge Andrew L Brasher, at least, seemed open to the idea that the lower court’s ruling, holding that the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control could ban a wide swath of crypto transactions, could benefit from more granular guidance.

The plaintiffs, four US citizens and Washignton, D.C.-based crypto advocacy nonprofit Coin Center argued their transactions in Ethereum cryptocurrency involved only Americans exchanging their own property—the coins themselves. The fact ...