Privacy Isn't a Crime: Why Crypto's Loudest Critics Still Want a Blind Spot 🙈

Crypto privacy tools serve "essential protective functions" that restore a measure of financial privacy long available in traditional finance, according to a new report from non-custodial platform ChangeNOW and digital asset management platform CoinRabbit. Drawing on data from TRM Labs, Chainalysis, RAND Corporation and the authors' own internal research, the report catalogs the risks of transparent public blockchains for sanctioned populations, corporate treasuries and high-net-worth individuals.

Sanctions enforcement falls hardest on civilians least able to influence the conduct being punished, the report argues. When Iran was cut off from SWIFT, ordinary citizens lost the ability to receive foreign payments, purchase imported goods and collect family remittances, while political elites retained alternative rails. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said Operation Economic Fury seized approximately $1 billion in Iranian-linked crypto, including a single $344 million USDT freeze on Tron.

Corporate treasuries face a different exposure. Any party holding a company's wallet address can reconstruct its vendor relationships, payment frequencies, estimated payroll and supply chain dependencies — information that would remain confidential at any bank. Statista research cited in the paper puts the share of board members worried about internal data becoming public at 36%, with the average breach costing $4.44 million.

High-net-worth crypto holders confront a personal safety risk from "wrench attacks." Walter Barrett, Chief Strategy & Growth Officer at CoinRabbit, noted that "public blockchain transparency lets anyone audit your net worth in real time, turning private wealth into public information." CertiK counted 52 verified wrench attacks in the first half of 2026, exposing $124.1 million — nearly 12 times the H1 2025 figure. France accounted for 33 of those incidents, following breaches at France Travail and ANTS that allowed attackers to match home addresses to suspected crypto holdings. French prosecutors have since charged 88 people, more than 10 of them minors.

The report also flags how blockchain transparency enables targeted scams. Internal CoinRabbit research found that roughly half of surveyed high-net-worth holders had faced a targeted social engineering attempt within three years, and that 30% use data-broker removal services to break the link between their identity and on-chain activity. The authors caution that privacy technology is a double-edged sword, citing TRM Labs figures placing total illicit crypto inflows at $158 billion for 2025, up 145%, with Chinese-language escrow and laundering networks accounting for more than $100 billion. Pig-butchering fraud caused $75 billion in losses between 2020 and 2024.