SAFE Crypto Act

Overview

• Bill: S. 3428 (SAFE Crypto Act)
  
• Session: 119th Congress, 1st Session
  

• Purpose: Establish a bipartisan, cross-sector Task Force on Recognizing and Averting Cryptocurrency Scams to study, coordinate, and recommend improvements to prevent digital asset scams and enhance law enforcement capabilities.

• Sponsor/Co-sponsors: Sen. Moran (primary) with Sen. Slotkin; cosponsored by Sen. Crapo.

• Introduction date: December 10, 2025

• Status in bill text: Referred to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.

Main purpose and intended impact

• Create a dedicated Task Force to identify, prevent, and disrupt scams involving digital assets (cryptocurrency, digital asset intermediaries, and related products).

• Improve coordination among federal, state, local, and Tribal authorities, industry participants, and victims’ networks to reduce scam incidence and improve recovery.

• Provide policy and operational recommendations, potentially informing future legislation, regulation, and enforcement strategies.

Key provisions and changes

• Definitions (Sec. 2)

  • Aligns defined terms with the GENIUS Act for Digital Asset, Digital Asset Service Provider, and Permitted Payment Stablecoin Issuer.
  • Defines the Secretary as the Secretary of the Treasury.
  • Defines the Task Force as established in Sec. 3.

• Establishment and composition of the Task Force (Sec. 3)

  • Establishment: The Secretary must establish the Task Force within 180 days after enactment.
  • Membership: Chaired by the Secretary (or designee) and includes:
  • Federal officials: Attorney General; Director of FinCEN; Director of the IRS; heads of other relevant agencies as determined.
  • Industry and service providers: Representatives of permitted payment stablecoin issuers; digital asset service providers; digital asset custodians; blockchain intelligence providers.
  • Stakeholders: Representatives of victims, scam support networks, consumer protection groups.
  • Law enforcement: Representatives of federal, state, and local law enforcement.
  • Other industries as needed, and representatives from one or more state bank regulatory authorities.
  • Term and vacancies: Members serve until the Task Force ends; vacancies filled in the same manner as initial appointments.

• Purposes (Sec. 3, subsections (c))

  • Scam detection and prevention: Analyze trends, develop methods to prevent scams, issue recommendations.
  • Cross-sector approach: Ensure recommendations reflect impacts across financial services, telecom, tech, etc.
  • Stakeholder insight: Include victim-support voices and industry insight into crime networks, ATMs, and prevention strategies (money tracing, etc.).
  • Information sharing and interdiction networks: Promote real-time information sharing and collaboration with digital asset service providers and stablecoin issuers to disrupt on/off-ramp flows linked to illicit activity.
  • Enhanced asset recovery: Coordinate with permitted stablecoin issuers to enable freezing, seizing, burning, or reissuing assets implicated in scams or unlawful conduct, consistent with due process and law.

• Meetings (Sec. 3, subsection (d))

  • The Task Force must meet at least three times in the first year, with flexibility to meet thereafter via in-person or remote means.

• Duties (Sec. 3, subsection (e))

  • Review data sources: FBI IC3 database, FTC fraud database, etc.
  • Best practices: Assess methods used by scammers (financial grooming, Ponzi schemes, rug pulls, etc.), and effectiveness of prevention and victim-support mechanisms.
  • International coordination: Compare approaches from other jurisdictions and collaborate internationally to curb scams.
  • Scams and intermediaries: Examine how scams are executed via digital asset intermediaries and develop countermeasures.
  • Education and reporting: Create and promote education programs to help consumers identify and report scams.
  • Law enforcement coordination: Propose strategies to identify and prosecute perpetrators; work with state, local, and Tribal authorities.
  • Stakeholder consultation: Involve financial services providers, other industries, and governmental agencies.
  • Legislative and staffing needs: Evaluate need for additional federal legislation and full-time staff to combat scams.
  • International collaboration: Target criminal networks abroad and coordinate with other governments.

• Compensation (Sec. 3, subsection (f))

  • Members serve without additional compensation beyond standard federal employee pay.

• Reporting requirements (Sec. 3, subsection (g))

  • Initial report due within 1 year: Includes results of reviews, identified strategies, legislative/regulatory recommendations, and recommendations to enhance intergovernmental cooperation, data sharing, reporting, and anti-scam training effectiveness.
  • Annual updates: After the initial report, the Task Force must publish yearly updated reports to the same committees and make them publicly available online, detailing progress and ongoing strategies.

• Applicable law and sunset (Secs. 3, subsecs (h)-(i))

  • The Task Force is not exempt from the Federal personnel rules in Chapter 4 of Title 5 (i.e., it operates outside certain standard federal work rules).
  • Sunset: The Task Force terminates 3 years after it submits the required report.

Who/what would be affected

• Federal agencies involved in enforcement, finance, taxation, and law enforcement (e.g., Treasury, FBI, FinCEN, IRS, DOJ).
• Digital asset industry participants: Digital asset service providers, permitted payment stablecoin issuers, digital asset custodians, blockchain intelligence providers.
• Victims and support networks: Individuals harmed by crypto scams and organizations assisting them.
• State and local authorities, Tribal governments, and state bank regulators.
• General public: Consumers and investors would be affected indirectly through improved scam detection, education, and potential enforcement actions.

Procedural and timeline aspects

• Timeline to establish: Task Force must be created within 180 days of enactment.
• Meetings: At least three meetings in the first year; ongoing as determined.
• Reporting timeline:
  • Initial comprehensive report due within 1 year of establishment.
  • Annual updates thereafter.
• Duration: The Task Force operates for up to 3 years from the date of the initial report, after which it terminates.

Potential implications

• Increased interagency and industry collaboration on crypto scam enforcement and prevention.
• Enhanced mechanisms for freezing or recovering digital assets linked to illicit activity, subject to due process and applicable law.
• Greater emphasis on consumer education and international cooperation to combat cross-border scams.
• Possible need for new legislation or regulatory adjustments to support expanded information sharing, data harmonization, and resource allocation for enforcement and education.