In its new report to Congress, the US Treasury Department stated that legitimate users of digital assets can use mixer-like tools for financial privacy purposes on public blockchains. With this statement, the Ministry recorded for the first time that privacy tools are not only related to illegal transactions.
Legal and Business Uses of Privacy Tools
The report noted that citizens and institutions may not want to show their personal wealth, corporate payments, donations or consumption expenditures in public. The Treasury Department has for years discussed mixers generally in terms of sanctions risk, ransomware payments and state-sponsored illegal activity. However, this latest report also recorded for the first time that financial privacy could be a legal justification.
Seeking Balance in Regulations
While the Ministry maintains its enforcement line against practices that prevent the investigation of dark transaction histories, it pointed out that mixer and similar privacy tools can serve within the legal framework. It was stated that these tools can also provide information flow to supervisory institutions, especially if privacy protection is offered through registered and audited service providers.
Growth in Blockchain Activities and Business Concerns
The report revealed that the number of successful monthly transactions on public blockchains reached 3.8 billion at the beginning of 2025, and this figure increased by 96% on an annual basis. Thus, the size of blockchain traffic includes not only investors but also salary payments, donations, intra-company transfers and consumer spending. For large-scale transactions, confidentiality becomes important not only in terms of compliance controls but also in terms of protecting trade secrets.
Institutional Capital and Crypto Infrastructure
The digital financial technology vision implemented under the administration of US President Donald Trump and the policy documents prepared in the first quarter of 2025 aim to ensure that more corporate capital and dollar-related transactions in the sector pass through channels within the US. While approximately $1.7 billion has inflowed into spot Bitcoin ETFs in recent months, various market analyzes reveal that institutional investors have shown great interest in regulated products.
Current Situation and Future Expectations in Privacy Technologies
According to the University of Cambridge’s February 2026 report, institutions have made $1.22 trillion worth of stablecoin transactions in the last two years. But this cycle, only 0.013% happened through privacy protocols. This rate shows that the demand for privacy at the corporate level is still limited, but the potential gap is quite large.
On the other hand, FATF’s 2026 report and the evaluations of the Ministry of Treasury warned that cryptocurrencies are being used more in laundering crime proceeds and that social media, encrypted messaging and artificial intelligence-supported fraud methods are diversifying. The Ministry showed with data that mixer-related transaction volume has reached 1.6 billion dollars since May 2020, and most of it passed through certain bridges.
On the user side, Coinbase Institutional stated in its 2026 market expectation report that increasing institutional adoption has increased interest in technologies such as zero-knowledge proofs and fully homomorphic encryption. Apart from technical differences, the focus of the debate has now shifted to which providers and under what conditions privacy tools will be offered within legal limits.
The Treasury Department has recorded in federal records that users acting on legal grounds may need confidentiality in payment and reconciliation transactions. The practical consequences of this will depend on the role of regulated infrastructure providers and the scope of the control system.
