{"id":103212,"date":"2026-01-17T11:33:28","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T11:33:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/103212\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T11:33:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T11:33:28","slug":"manhattan-da-and-ny-senator-propose-15-year-prison-terms-for-unlicensed-crypto-businesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/103212\/","title":{"rendered":"Manhattan DA And NY Senator Propose 15-Year Prison Terms For Unlicensed Crypto Businesses"},"content":{"rendered":"

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and New York State Senator Zellnor Myrie on Thursday proposed legislation called the “CRYPTO” Act that would make unlicensed cryptocurrency business operations<\/a> a felony in New York, with penalties ranging up to 15 years in state prison for transactions involving $1 million or more annually.<\/p>\n

What Happened: Criminal Penalties for Unlicensed Crypto Firms<\/p>\n

The proposed law\u2014formally titled “Cryptocurrency Regulation Yields Protections, Trust, and Oversight”\u2014would transform<\/a> existing civil sanctions for operating without a virtual currency license into criminal charges.<\/p>\n

Under current New York rules, organizations that exchange, trade or transport cryptocurrencies<\/a> must register for a virtual currency license, but violations carry only civil penalties.<\/p>\n

The CRYPTO Act would establish a new offense category called Unlicensed Virtual Currency Business Activity. Penalties would scale based on transaction value: a Class A misdemeanor for smaller amounts, escalating to a Class C felony for operations involving $1 million or more within a year.<\/p>\n

That felony charge carries potential sentences of 5 to 15 years in state prison.<\/p>\n

Also Read: XRP Matches Bitcoin And Ethereum In X Cashtag Queries, What’s Driving The Social Interest Spike?<\/a><\/p>\n

Why It Matters: Closing Regulatory Gaps<\/p>\n

Bragg described the cryptocurrency industry as a “shadow financial system” that enables money laundering and other crimes. “Crypto is the go-to means for bad actors to move and hide the proceeds of crime,” he stated.<\/p>\n

Myrie said the bill would bring New York in line with 18 other jurisdictions that already criminalize unlicensed virtual currency transactions.<\/p>\n

“As the use of crypto has grown, so has illicit activity,” he said, adding that New York’s status as a financial hub demands stricter oversight.<\/p>\n

The proposal coincides with a Thursday letter from House Democrats\u2014including Representatives Maxine Waters, Sean Casten and Brad Sherman\u2014urging Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins to reinstate enforcement actions against digital asset firms.<\/p>\n

Read Next: This Analyst Targets $240K Bitcoin In 2026, Echoing CZ’s Bullish Outlook<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and New York State Senator Zellnor Myrie on Thursday proposed legislation called the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-103212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103212","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=103212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}