SEC Roundtable Outcomes: Privacy Returns to the Spotlight in the Crypto Industry

On December 15, 2025, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) held a roundtable dedicated to privacy and financial surveillance in the crypto industry. The relevance of this discussion is driven by several factors:

• First, in recent years, a number of high-profile cases have been initiated against crypto projects, including Tornado Cash and Samourai Wallet. Convictions in these cases demonstrated that developers and operators of privacy services can be held accountable for how third parties use their tools.
• Second, interest in privacy coins and confidentiality tools is on the rise again: in 2025, Zcash (ZEC) has shown remarkable growth, with its value in the current cycle increasing by hundreds of percent.

The SEC is responding to market changes by aiming to develop policies that consider both security requirements and anti-money laundering measures, as well as market participants’ expectations regarding privacy. The roundtable served as a key platform for discussing approaches to integrating these principles into the legal framework and financial oversight practices.

Key Takeaways

1. The SEC will hold a roundtable on December 15, 2025, to discuss privacy and financial oversight in the crypto industry.
2. Interest in privacy coins and confidentiality tools, including Zcash and Monero, is growing.
3. High-profile legal cases against Tornado Cash and Samourai Wallet show that developers can be held accountable.
4. Privacy is becoming a strategic advantage for businesses and client data protection.
5. The SEC acknowledges the issue of excessive financial oversight.
6. The roundtable could shift regulators’ approach from strict criminalization of privacy tools to a more balanced framework.

Why Privacy Has Become a Central Topic Again

2025 has been unprecedented in terms of both the volume and scale of cybercrime: in the first half of the year alone, more than $2.1 billion in cryptocurrency was stolen through hacks and exploits. There have also been at least 48 physical attacks on crypto holders, including the kidnapping and assault of Ledger co-founder David Balland. Against this backdrop, users and business owners worldwide are increasingly interested in blockchain privacy, which remains largely unavailable today.

Additionally, interest in privacy has been fueled by:

• The partial guilty verdict in the Roman Storm case. Tornado Cash was accused of laundering over $1 billion in illicit funds through its service, including proceeds connected to the sanctioned Lazarus Group. Roman was found guilty of “operating an unlicensed money transmitting business.”
• Keonne Rodriguez, co-founder of Samourai Wallet, received the maximum five-year sentence on the same charge.
• Zcash (ZEC) and Monero (XMR) have experienced increasing capital inflows since early November amid heightened demand for privacy. In Zcash, the shielded layer (encrypted transactions) covers 25–30% of circulating supply, indicating active use of privacy features rather than speculative interest.

Narratives within the crypto community increasingly emphasize a return to the industry’s original philosophy of security, encryption, and confidentiality. Prominent U.S. journalist, broadcaster, and crypto expert Naomi Brockwell puts it this way:

Major crypto projects are also responding to these trends:

• Coinbase is working to add “private transactions” for its Base Layer 2 network.
• Ethereum is developing protocols using zero-knowledge proofs, which can obscure both addresses and transaction amounts.

Legal Precedents That Have Alarmed the Industry

High-profile cases, including Tornado Cash and Samourai Wallet, have raised the question of whether developers of open-source projects can be held criminally or administratively liable for how third parties use their code. The legal community warns that such charges create a dangerous precedent: in decentralized ecosystems, controlling user behavior is virtually impossible, and punishing developers for others’ actions could seriously undermine the foundations of open-source software. An independent journalist, known on X as L0la L33tz, illustrates this point clearly:

Ultimately, such convictions can chill innovation in the privacy space, slowing the adoption of new technologies and limiting the development of safe and anonymous infrastructure in the crypto industry.

Why This Matters for Business — The Trend Toward Managed, Predictable Privacy

In today’s crypto business environment, companies must protect data and assets, prevent reputational and financial risks, and comply with regulatory requirements. With the rise of hacks, data leaks, and on-chain deanonymization tools, privacy management has become an integral part of business models.

Today, privacy is seen as a strategic advantage, not merely a “hacker tool” or a means of circumventing the law. Confidentiality allows clients to use services safely and enables companies to protect sensitive information.

What Was Discussed: Key Session Topics and Outcomes

It is important to note that the SEC held a roundtable focused on discussion. Its purpose was to exchange opinions and analyze issues, rather than adopt official policies or issue new regulations. The main points are:

• Government agencies, including the SEC, have historically overextended practices of mass data collection (for example, the CAT system), creating risks of excessive surveillance and proving largely ineffective.
• Public blockchains are already highly transparent and, if regulated incorrectly, could become a perfect system for financial oversight.
• Treating every wallet as a broker, every transaction as reportable, and every protocol as a monitoring point results in a “financial panopticon.”
• At the same time, crypto technologies allow for both privacy and compliance to coexist (e.g., zero-knowledge proofs, selective disclosure, etc.).
• Full transparency can also be harmful to markets: it interferes with market-making, hedging, and increases the risk of front-running.

SEC Meeting Outcomes

• The SEC acknowledges the issue of excessive financial oversight.
• A course has been confirmed to review and reduce the collection of sensitive data (for example, in the CAT system).
• Support was expressed for the idea that crypto technologies with privacy-enhancing features can reduce, rather than increase, the need for mass surveillance.
• The regulator is seeking a model where the privacy of law-abiding users is protected while still enabling effective threat mitigation.

BitHide’s View on the Future of Privacy for Businesses

Today, businesses face an unprecedented level of transparency in the blockchain — any competitor, malicious actor, or dishonest participant can track transactions, link addresses, and build financial graphs of a company. This creates risks that do not even exist in the traditional banking system.

As the first confidential crypto payment solution for businesses, we clearly see that the trend toward privacy and security is returning. This is confirmed by major industry players and even government agencies. Companies need managed, predictable, and regulated privacy — not absolute anonymity, but control over the level of data disclosure.

What the SEC Roundtable Could Change

Although the outcomes of the SEC roundtable will not lead to the immediate adoption of new rules, perceptions and approaches to privacy in the crypto industry may change:

• First, regulators will be able to articulate their positions more clearly, giving companies guidance on building compliance and managing risks.
• Second, the discussion could shift the focus from strict criminalization of privacy tools toward a more measured approach that considers business and technological realities.

Conclusion: Privacy — the New Point of Contention in the Crypto Industry

The SEC roundtable demonstrates that privacy has moved from the margins to become a necessary component of crypto infrastructure. Discussions among regulators and market participants show that blockchain transparency demands a new approach to managing confidentiality, where privacy is treated as a tool for control, security, and strategic business advantage.

The crypto market is entering a phase in which privacy becomes a standard of corporate practice, shaping new norms for compliance, risk management, and regulatory engagement.