Blockchain Association Challenges SEC’s Data Collection Program Over Privacy Concerns
Hongji is a crypto and tech reporter. He graduated from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism with a Bachelor's and a Master's. He has previously interned at HTX (Huobi Global),...
The Blockchain Association and the DeFi Education Fund filed an amicus brief on August 23 challenging the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) program.
According to a press release by the Blockchain Association, the CAT program, which seeks to create a centralized database of all securities trades in the U.S., could expose digital asset transactions to extensive scrutiny.
1/ Today, we, along with @fund_defi, filed an amicus brief supporting a challenge to the SEC’s Consolidated Audit Trail – or CAT – program, highlighting the unprecedented privacy concerns raised by CAT. pic.twitter.com/na4CzB0BDG
The amicus brief raised significant concerns about the privacy implications of the CAT program, which aims to compile a vast database of all U.S. securities trades.
They argued that the program could jeopardize the privacy of digital asset transactions, especially as the SEC considers many digital asset platforms as brokers or exchanges.
The program’s extensive data collection could link blockchain wallet addresses to personal information, exposing users to unprecedented surveillance of their financial activities.
The brief also cautioned that the CAT program could set a dangerous precedent for government overstepping monitoring financial data. The organizations emphasized that such broad surveillance could undermine individuals’ privacy rights and normalize invasive oversight.
“The CAT program’s sweeping surveillance of personal financial data, including potentially sensitive blockchain transactions, is a
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