New US law broadly defines “digital assets” and gives the US president the power to block access to digital assets

US Senator Mark Warner recently inserted legislative elements into the anti-terrorism financing bill, giving the US President comprehensive power to conduct strict scrutiny of digital assets (including a wide range of bans on access to digital assets), which has caused concerns among industry professionals. The new law broadly defines "digital assets," including any digital representation of value recorded on a cryptographically protected distributed ledger. Under this new law, the President can prevent transactions between Americans and foreign entities identified as supporting terrorist organizations. This includes imposing strict restrictions on foreign financial institutions that facilitate such transactions if they have accounts opened in the US.