A US Federal court ruled on July 24 that Bitcoin represents a form of money that is covered by the Money Transmitters Act (MTA) of Washington D.C.
The court made this ruling as a motion to deny dismissal of charges against Larry Dean Harmon, sued for operating an unlicensed Bitcoin trading platform on the dark web.
A District of Columbia federal grand jury indicted Harmon in December 2019 for a scheme to launder monetary instruments. On the other side, Harmon’s defence tried to dismiss the allegations by claiming the prosecution “failed to state an offence”.
Thus, the court had to make a decision whether Bitcoin falls into the category of money in accordance with the laws of the state.
The court determined that Bitcoin is money under the MTA and pointed out that Harmon himself has never put into question the claim that Bitcoin is a monetary instrument.
The allegations against Harmon state that Helix, a darknet website, charged a fee to make Bitcoin transactions in a way that conceal the owner and the address of the monetary instruments.
The website was shut down back in 2017 and Harmon was arrest three years later in February 2020.
In its operations from 2014 to 2017, Helix has exchanged around 354,000 Bitcoins – then equivalent to around $310 million.
