From Promising Crypto Freedom to Building a Global Monitoring System

President Donald Trump has long framed himself as the champion of cryptocurrency and financial liberation — echoing Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision of decentralization and individual sovereignty. But his administration’s latest policy direction suggests a sharp departure from that narrative.

Since November, the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) has sat on the president’s desk awaiting approval. Backed by the OECD and already adopted by more than 40 countries, CARF mandates automatic data-sharing between foreign crypto platforms and U.S. tax authorities.

Once implemented, all American taxpayers holding digital assets overseas will be required to disclose them — effectively ending the anonymity and financial autonomy once associated with offshore jurisdictions like Dubai, Singapore and the Bahamas.

In a 168-page report, the administration argues that a weak oversight “threatens national competitiveness,” positioning CARF as a mechanism to keep digital capital onshore while boosting domestic innovation. It claims the framework will “promote growth and use of digital assets in the United States” while eliminating competitive disadvantages inherent in a system without global reporting.

Simultaneously, Congress is reviewing a bill that would compel Americans to report any foreign-held crypto accounts, with strict penalties for non-compliance. The message is unmistakable: the era of relaxed offshore crypto activity is coming to an end.

Global Crackdowns, Rising Scams, and the Expanding International Surveillance Net

The United States is not acting alone. Its shift comes amid a worldwide regulatory tightening as governments attempt to curb opaque cryptocurrency movements and crack down on illicit financial flows.

The U.S. Department of Justice revealed that crypto scams generated $9.3 billion in losses in 2024, with some overseas criminal hubs becoming so lucrative that they distort local economies. These operations rely heavily on networks of offshore wallets, prompting regulators to target not just individuals but also foreign exchanges that fail to comply with tax-reporting obligations.

Countries such as Japan, France and Germany already exchange crypto tax data under CARF, contributing to a rapidly growing global architecture of cross-border monitoring. However, one major carve-out remains: DeFi transactions are currently excluded, a deliberate — and controversial — decision to avoid alienating decentralization advocates.

This rising tide of regulatory scrutiny has divided the crypto industry. Supporters argue that CARF provides much-needed legitimacy and fraud protection, while critics warn it represents a sweeping expansion of state surveillance that threatens to undermine the very principles crypto was built upon.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission signaled in its latest plan that crypto is not a top priority for 2026 — a move viewed as a shift toward tax enforcement and targeted oversight rather than broad regulatory aggression.

Surveillance or Safety Net? The Contradiction at the Heart of Trump’s Crypto Strategy

The Trump administration now finds itself walking a political and ideological tightrope. On one side, it continues to champion crypto as a tool of financial freedom; on the other, it is constructing one of the most comprehensive global surveillance systems the digital asset sector has ever seen.

Supporters of CARF say it will protect Americans by reducing fraud, increasing transparency and improving the legitimacy of the digital asset market. But critics view the move as a fundamental betrayal — a pivot from crypto freedom to crypto monitoring, and a sign of an emerging international regime that mirrors traditional financial surveillance models.

Whether CARF becomes a necessary safety net or an overreach of state power will depend entirely on how aggressively the government chooses to enforce it, and whether the administration continues to expand its monitoring tools beyond centralized platforms and into the decentralized world it once claimed to empower.