Laws move slower than markets. But they hit harder. This is issue #79 of The Bitcoin Act: your Tuesday and Sunday briefing on the legal and regulatory moves that actually shape Bitcoin.

Now for today’s top stories:

🏛️ California's Seizure Bill Lands
Two bills expanding seizure powers and preventing official meme coins are on Newsom's desk.

💰 $300 Exemption Raises Revenue
Cornell scores Lummis's de minimis bill at plus $859 million for Treasury. Spending sats is still taxable.

⚖️ CLARITY Faces September 15
Lummis warns the next window is 2030 if cloture fails. The Senate needs 60 votes just to open debate.

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California sent Newsom two bills on September 3 and 4. SB 1208 expands money laundering to cover digital assets and lets police freeze exchange coins for 10 days without warrant and seize them if they obtain one. AB 2409 prevents official-issued meme coins.

Both bills are now on Newsom's desk. He has three options: sign them into law, do nothing and let them become law automatically, or veto them. The deadline is September 30.

LegiScan

Cornell's Tech Policy Institute now estimates Lummis's S. 2207, exempting gains on everyday crypto spends under $300, would raise Treasury $859 million over ten years, since only 32 to 56 percent of holders report gains. The bill still sits in committee.

Nothing changed today: spending sats is still a taxable disposal requiring you to compute the gain since you bought. What changed is the counterargument. The "it costs revenue" objection now has a number against it.

Cornell

Lummis warned that if the CLARITY Act fails this Congress, the next real window is 2030. The Senate votes September 15 on cloture, a procedural motion needing 60 votes to open debate, not to pass the bill.

If it dies, you keep the status quo: no statute protecting self-custody, no shield for Bitcoin developers, no CFTC authority over spot markets in a law. Watch the September 15 cloture vote.

Sen. Cynthia Lummis on X

🇨🇭 Swiss Squeeze on Peach
Peach, a Swiss platform where users buy and sell Bitcoin directly with each other, was allowed to skip identity checks since 2022. The regulator is reconsidering, so Peach paused its escrow and now only verified or experienced users can sell.

🇦🇺 Australia Pulls 45 Registrations
AUSTRAC canceled, suspended or refused to renew 45 crypto and remittance registrations over the past year, citing money laundering risks and insolvent operators. GetCoins was pulled in June after ties to organized investment scams.

🇪🇺 Binance Skirts MiCA's Deadline
Binance kept onboarding EU customers past the July 1 MiCA deadline, leaning on a reverse solicitation exemption to serve self-initiated signups while routing some EU trades through Abu Dhabi. ESMA wants proof it's exiting.

🇵🇱 Poland Blocks Itself
Poland's Sejm voted 241-198 on September 5, short of the 266 needed to override President Nawrocki's third veto of the Crypto-Asset Market Act. No Polish authority can issue licenses under MiCA.

🇺🇦 One Signature, Drained
Ukraine's National Police shut a Kyiv network of fake investment sites that drained wallets in over 20 countries after victims approved a "test transaction." 62 victims identified, 46 recruits, up to $1 million monthly turnover.

🇬🇧 FCA Rethinks Ban
Britain's FCA has held talks with platforms about easing its 2019 retail ban on financial prediction markets, yes-or-no bets on future events, as Britons reach Kalshi and Polymarket via VPN. No rule has changed.

🇵🇱 Fifth Zondacrypto Charge
Polish prosecutors charged Roman Ż., a former partner of missing BitBay founder Sylwester Suszek, with fraud and a second undisclosed offense. He is the fifth suspect charged; customer losses total at least $94 million.

🇮🇪 Irish Gangs Vault Their Keys
Ireland's Criminal Assets Bureau says organized crime groups are storing hardware wallets and seed phrases in rented private vaults alongside cash, watches, and passports, exploiting legal gaps since proving criminal origin is required before seizure.

🇩🇪 Berlin Hacked, Citizens Data Leaked
Hackers stole several terabytes from Berlin's state government and demanded 30 Bitcoin, about €2 million, to stay quiet. Berlin refused to pay. The deadline expired September 4, and the stolen files, including citizen data, were published on the darknet.

🇫🇷 Wrench Attacks Downmarket
Two masked men tied up a mother and son in Nice on September 6 and stole a phone containing the access codes to their $25,000 crypto account. France counts 135 kidnappings targeting coin holders since 2023.

Every week I drop one concrete, actionable answer to a legal or political question that actually affects your life as a Bitcoiner, focused on a specific, real-world action you can take.

This week: How is your Bitcoin split in a divorce? (in the US)

A court order reaches coins no exchange ever touched. Keys prove control, not ownership, and hiding sats is the fastest way to lose all of them.

Got a legal or regulatory question you want answered next Tuesday? Hit reply and send it.

📊 Who will Trump pardon before 2027? Keonne Rodriguez — 15% Polymarket

📊 CLARITY Act signed into law in 2026? — 16% Polymarket

📊 US Treasury announces Bitcoin purchase by December 31, 2026 — 12% Polymarket

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