Growing concerns over privacy and financial surveillance in the crypto sector have pushed the U.S. SEC’s Crypto Task Force to schedule a major roundtable on December 15. The meeting will gather SEC officials and top industry leaders to discuss rising privacy risks across the ecosystem. While no direct policy recommendations are expected, the discussion aims to address shared challenges and highlight the crypto community’s demand for stronger privacy protections.

Recent legal actions have intensified these concerns. The partial guilty verdict for Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm, the sentencing of the Samourai Wallet developer, and sharp gains in privacy-token prices have all renewed calls for safeguarding user anonymity. Advocates like Naomi Brockwell warn that weakened privacy empowers authoritarian abuse, underscoring privacy’s foundational role since the cypherpunk origins of cryptocurrency.

Legal experts say recent prosecutions send a troubling signal to developers building privacy-focused, open-source tools. Responding to backlash, DOJ official Matthew Galeotti clarified that the department will not prosecute developers solely for writing code, emphasizing that innovation should not be criminalized absent malicious intent.