HR 2384: Financial Technology Protection Act of 2025

HR 2384 in plain English: This bill creates a new federal working group to study how terrorists and criminals use digital assets and emerging financial technologies, and to propose improvements to anti-money laundering and counterterrorism financing efforts. It also requires the Department of the Treasury to report on how foreign states and terrorist groups could use digital assets to evade U.S. sanctions and to outline a strategy to prevent such activity. The working group would shut down four years after the bill becomes law, or after completing its work, whichever is later.

Stated purpose

This bill creates an independent working group made up of government officials and private sector experts to study how terrorists and criminals use digital assets and other new financial technologies, and to develop recommendations for better anti-money laundering and counterterrorism financing laws. It also requires the Treasury Department to report on how foreign governments, terrorist groups, and other bad actors might use digital assets to evade U.S. sanctions and to propose a strategy to stop that.

Key points

• Creates an Independent Financial Technology Working Group to study terrorist and criminal use of digital assets
• Working group must develop proposals to strengthen anti-money laundering and counterterrorism financing efforts
• Working group terminates four years after enactment or upon completion of its work
• Treasury Department must report on how foreign states and terrorist groups could use digital assets to evade U.S. sanctions
• Treasury must also produce a strategy to prevent digital asset-based sanctions evasion

Arguments supporters make

• Digital assets like cryptocurrency can be used by terrorists and sanctioned countries to move money across borders without detection, and a dedicated working group is a necessary step to close that loophole.
• Including private sector experts from fintech, blockchain, and civil liberties groups alongside government officials makes the working group more balanced and more likely to produce workable, real-world solutions.
• The bill has a built-in four-year sunset and requires unused funds to be returned to the Treasury, keeping it accountable and preventing it from becoming a permanent bureaucratic body.

Arguments opponents make

• A study group that only produces reports and recommendations has no enforcement power, so critics may see this as a symbolic gesture that delays real action against terrorist financing rather than taking it.
• Placing financial technology company representatives inside a government working group that shapes regulations could give industry insiders too much influence over the rules meant to govern them.
• Expanding government surveillance of digital asset transactions in the name of counterterrorism could threaten the financial privacy of ordinary, law-abiding users who rely on these technologies.

Tradeoffs

Stronger tools to track and prevent illicit use of digital assets may come at the cost of financial privacy for everyday users; the bill tries to balance these concerns by including civil liberties voices, but the weight given to security versus privacy will depend on how recommendations are eventually implemented.

Current status in Congress: Passed House.