An investor’s challenge to the Internal Revenue Service’s seizure of his cryptocurrency exchange records has teed up a showdown with the government at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit over privacy rights and how the “third-party doctrine” applies in the digital age.

The Boston-based appeals court will consider a question-of-first-impression next month about whether the IRS violated a crypto trader’s Fourth Amendment rights by obtaining his financial information from Coinbase without a warrant. The outcome could affect the government’s ability to tax cryptocurrency profits.

Daniel H. Ahn partner with Reed Smith. Couretsy photo