{"id":101795,"date":"2026-01-16T00:13:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T00:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/101795\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T00:13:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T00:13:09","slug":"da-bragg-proposes-criminalizing-ny-businesses-handling-crypto-without-license","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/101795\/","title":{"rendered":"DA Bragg proposes criminalizing NY businesses handling crypto without license"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>New legislation <a href=\"https:\/\/manhattanda.org\/d-a-bragg-senator-myrie-announce-new-bill-to-combat-use-of-cryptocurrency-to-commit-crimes\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">proposed by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Thursday<\/a> would make it a crime for New York businesses to deal in cryptocurrency without a license.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nysenate.gov\/legislation\/bills\/2025\/S8901\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">CRYPTO Act<\/a>, which Bragg announced he was co-sponsoring with State Sen. Zellnor Myrie, proposes that business owners who handle crypto without a virtual currency license be subject to criminal prosecution and to felonies carrying up to 15 years in prison if they process more than $1 million in crypto transactions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe shadow financial system created by the explosion of cryptocurrency has created an ideal vehicle for money laundering and other crimes in New York State. Crypto is the go-to means for bad actors to move and hide the proceeds of crime,\u201d Bragg said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is long past time for businesses that operate without a virtual currency license and flout due-diligence requirements to face criminal penalties.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The DA has indicated that enforcing the law around crypto crime will be a hallmark priority in his second term. At a public safety talk on Wednesday <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=9SmQa8E64is\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">at New York Law School<\/a>, he said that hard-to-trace cryptocurrency transactions facilitate criminality and that \u201cgetting our arms around this is key for systemic accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Currently, New York businesses that exchange, trade or transmit crypto can face federal criminal charges for operating without a license, yet face only civil penalties under state law.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNew York is the financial capital of the world and we need to take our responsibilities to the marketplace seriously,\u201d Myrie said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy bill would bring New York in line with the 18 other states that have explicitly made unlicensed crypto transactions a crime and help protect consumers and the general public from potential frauds, scams and other financial crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With Rocco Parascandola<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New legislation proposed by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Thursday would make it a crime for New&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[266,267,9,24,55,54,12,56],"class_list":["post-101795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-local-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-news","tag-ny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}