Supreme Court opened crypto wallets to surveillance; privacy must go onchain

Crypto transactions are vulnerable to warrant-free surveillance, making privacy-enhancing tools essential for blockchain’s future.

Opinion by: Vikrant Sharma, CEO of Cake Labs

When the United States Supreme Court refused to hear Harper v. Faulkender on June 30, 2025, the court essentially endorsed the Internal Revenue Service’s sweeping “John Doe” summonses for cryptocurrency records.

By letting a lower court ruling stand, the court confirmed that the century-old third-party doctrine stands for public ledgers just as it does for bank statements. Under the third-party doctrine, information voluntarily shared with another party, like a bank or blockchain, is no longer protected by the Fourth Amendment. When data leaves a person’s direct control, constitutional privacy protections vanish.

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