US Treasury acknowledges lawful use of Bitcoin and crypto mixers

The US Treasury has said in writing that crypto mixers are not just for criminals. In a March 2026 report to Congress under the GENIUS Act, the department said lawful users may turn to mixers to protect their financial privacy on public blockchains. Coming from the same agency that sanctioned Tornado Cash in 2022, that is a meaningful change in tone. What the Treasury actually said A mixer pools crypto from many users and sends it back out, which makes it harder to trace who paid whom. That matters because most blockchains are public by design. Every transaction sits on a ledger that anyone can read, forever. The Treasury report recognizes the cost of that transparency. It says mixers can help lawful users shield transaction details tied to personal wealth, business payments, or charitable donations. The acknowledgment comes with conditions. The report says mixers should be paired with proper safeguards, such as record-keeping. The broader message is that privacy tools are not inherently illegal. According to the report, they can coexist with compliance measures. The illicit side has not gone away The report does not hand mixers a clean bill of health. It also documents how bad act...