Sacramento DA Urges Clearer Crypto Laws to Protect Innovation

U.S. crypto oversight has often applied existing money-transmission laws through individual enforcement cases, leaving uncertainty over when software developers can be treated as financial intermediaries. Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho argues that ambiguity can push open-source talent and infrastructure overseas while diverting prosecutors from custodial exchanges, centralized mixers and other actors that knowingly handle illicit funds. Clear statutory boundaries, he says, are essential to protect both innovation and public safety.

In a CoinDesk opinion column published May 4, 2026, Ho said the U.S. share of open-source developers fell to 18% in 2025 from 25% in 2021. He welcomed an April 2025 Department of Justice memorandum limiting prosecutions under Section 1960 for purely regulatory violations, but said agency guidance can change and is no substitute for statute. Ho urged Congress to back the Promoting Innovation in Blockchain Development Act, which would clarify protections for developers who neither control customer assets nor transfer funds on users’ behalf.