116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 56 
AN ACT 
To establish an Independent Financial Technology Task 
Force to Combat Terrorism and Illicit Financing, to 
provide rewards for information leading to convictions 
related to terrorist use of digital currencies, to establish 
a Fintech Leadership in Innovation and Financial Intel-
ligence Program to encourage the development of tools 
and programs to combat terrorist and illicit use of digital 
currencies, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Financial Technology 
Protection Act’’. 
SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
It is the sense of Congress that the Federal Govern-
ment should prioritize the investigation of terrorist and 
illicit use of new financial technology, including digital 
currencies. 
SEC. 3. INDEPENDENT FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY TASK 
FORCE TO COMBAT TERRORISM AND ILLICIT 
FINANCING. 
(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—There is established the Inde-
pendent Financial Technology Task Force to Combat Ter-
rorism and Illicit Financing (the ‘‘Task Force’’), which 
shall consist of— 
(1) the Secretary of the Treasury, who shall 
serve as the head of the Task Force; 
(2) the Attorney General; 
(3) the Director of National Intelligence; 
(4) the Director of the Financial Crimes En-
forcement Network; 
(5) the Director of the Secret Service;
(6) the Director of the Federal Bureau of In-
vestigation; and 
(7) 6 individuals appointed by the Secretary of 
the Treasury, in consultation with the members of 
the Task Force described under paragraphs (2) 
through (6), to represent the private sector (includ-
ing the banking industry, nonprofit groups, and 
think tanks), with at least 2 of such individuals hav-
ing experience in the Fintech industry. 
(b) DUTIES.—The Task Force shall— 
(1) conduct independent research on terrorist 
and illicit use of new financial technologies, includ-
ing digital currencies; and 
(2) develop legislative and regulatory proposals 
to improve counter-terrorist and counter-illicit fi-
nancing efforts. 
(c) ANNUAL CONGRESSIONAL REPORT.—Not later 
than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, 
and annually thereafter, the Task Force shall issue a re-
port to the Congress containing the findings and deter-
minations made by the Task Force in the previous year 
and any legislative and regulatory proposals developed by 
the Task Force.
SEC. 4. REWARDS FOR INFORMATION RELATED TO TER-
RORIST USE OF DIGITAL CURRENCIES. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of the Treasury, in 
consultation with the Attorney General, shall establish a 
fund to pay a reward, not to exceed $450,000, to any per-
son who provides information leading to the conviction of 
an individual involved with terrorist use of digital cur-
rencies. 
(b) USE OF FINES AND FORFEITURES.—With re-
spect to fines and forfeitures related to the conviction of 
an individual involved with terrorist use of digital cur-
rencies, the Secretary of the Treasury shall, subject to the 
availability of appropriations made in advance— 
(1) use such amounts to pay rewards under this 
section related to such conviction; and 
(2) with respect to any such amounts remaining 
after payments are made under paragraphs (1) and 
(2), deposit such amounts in the Fintech Leadership 
in Innovation and Financial Intelligence Program. 
SEC. 5. FINTECH LEADERSHIP IN INNOVATION AND FINAN-
CIAL INTELLIGENCE PROGRAM. 
(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—There is established a pro-
gram to be known as the ‘‘Fintech Leadership in Innova-
tion and Financial Intelligence Program’’, which shall be 
funded as provided under section 4(b)(2). 
(b) INNOVATION GRANTS.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of the Treas-
ury shall make grants for the development of tools 
and programs to detect terrorist and illicit use of 
digital currencies. 
(2) ELIGIBLE RECIPIENTS.—The Secretary may 
make grants under this subsection to entities located 
in the United States, including academic institu-
tions, companies, nonprofit institutions, individuals, 
and any other entities located in the United States 
that the Secretary determines appropriate. 
(3) ELIGIBLE PROJECTS.—With respect to tools 
and programs described under paragraph (1), in ad-
dition to grants for the development of such tools 
and programs, the Secretary may make grants 
under this subsection to carry out pilot programs 
using such tools, the development of test cases using 
such tools, and research related to such tools. 
(4) PREFERENCES.—In making grants under 
this subsection, the Secretary shall give preference 
to— 
(A) technology that is nonproprietary or 
that is community commons-based; 
(B) computer code that is developed and 
released on an open source basis;
(C) tools that are proactive (such as meet-
ing regulatory requirements under ‘‘know your 
customer’’ and anti-money laundering require-
ments for any entity that has to comply with 
U.S. Government regulations) vs. reactive (such 
as aiding law enforcement organizations in 
catching illegal activity after the fact); and 
(D) tools and incentives that are on decen-
tralized platforms. 
(5) OTHER REQUIREMENTS.— 
(A) USE
OF
EXISTING
GLOBAL
STAND-
ARDS.—Any new technology developed with a 
grant made under this subsection shall be based 
on existing global standards, such as those de-
veloped by the Internet Engineering Task Force 
(IETF) and the World Wide Web Consortium 
(W3C). 
(B) SUPPORTING EXISTING LAWS OR REG-
ULATIONS.—Tools and programs developed with 
a grant made under this subsection shall be in 
support of existing laws or regulations, includ-
ing the Bank Secrecy Act, and make efforts to 
balance privacy and anti-money laundering con-
cerns.
(C) OPEN ACCESS REQUIREMENT.—Tools 
and programs developed with a grant made 
under this subsection shall be freely accessible 
and usable by the public. This requirement may 
be fulfilled by publicly availing application pro-
gramming interfaces or software development 
kits. 
SEC. 6. PREVENTING ROGUE AND FOREIGN ACTORS FROM 
EVADING SANCTIONS. 
(a) REPORT AND STRATEGY WITH RESPECT TO DIG-
ITAL CURRENCIES
AND OTHER RELATED EMERGING 
TECHNOLOGIES.— 
(1) IN
GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 
President, acting through the Secretary of Treasury 
and in consultation with the Attorney General, the 
Secretary of State, the Secretary of Homeland Secu-
rity, the Director of National Intelligence, the Direc-
tor of the Office of Management and Budget, and 
the appropriate Federal banking agencies and Fed-
eral functional regulators, shall— 
(A) submit to the appropriate congres-
sional committees a report that identifies and 
describes the potential uses of digital currencies 
and other related emerging technologies by
states, non-state actors, and foreign terrorist 
organizations to evade sanctions, finance ter-
rorism, or launder monetary instruments, and 
threaten United States national security; and 
(B) develop and submit to the appropriate 
congressional committees a strategy to mitigate 
and prevent such illicit use of digital currencies 
and other related emerging technologies. 
(2) FORM; PUBLIC AVAILABILITY.— 
(A) FORM.—The report and strategy re-
quired under paragraph (1) shall be submitted 
in unclassified form, but may contain a classi-
fied annex. 
(B) PUBLIC AVAILABILITY.—The unclassi-
fied portion of such report and strategy shall be 
made available to the public and posted on the 
internet website of the Department of Treas-
ury— 
(i) 
in 
pre-compressed, 
easily 
downloadable versions that are made avail-
able in all appropriate formats; and 
(ii) in machine-readable format, if ap-
plicable. 
(3) SOURCES OF INFORMATION.—In preparing 
the report and strategy required under paragraph