The CRYPTO Act, or Cryptocurrency Regulation Yields Protections, Trust, and Oversight, was introduced January 14 and would add Section 408-b to New York’s Financial Services Law, creating a new offense of Unlicensed Virtual Currency Business Activity with graduated criminal penalties that currently do not exist at the state levelCharges scale from a Class A misdemeanor at baseline to a Class E felony for $25,000 or more within 30 days, and a Class C felony carrying 5 to 15 years imprisonment for $1 million or more in a year; 18 other states and the federal system already criminalize unlicensed crypto activityThe bill is a direct counter to the Trump administration’s April 2025 decision to pull back federal crypto enforcement, with Bragg positioning state prosecution as the necessary backstop where federal action has retreated