Since bitcoin’s birth in 2009, cryptocurrency has been the black sheep of the digital asset world, showing the first promises of a decentralized financial system, while also being a vital tool for bad actors and under-the-table transactions.

For U.S. regulators, like the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the blockchain-backed currency has long been a vexing alternative to the traditional dollar. On the one hand, its qualities have been too distinct to pass the legal tests required for the agency to have jurisdiction over it. But on the other, crypto users have increasingly been trading in ways that the SEC deems worthy of regulation.

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