Coin Center describes itself as a non-profit research and advocacy centre based in Washington, D.C., working on the public policy questions raised by cryptocurrency and decentralised computing. Its stated mission is the right to write and publish code, to read and run it, to assemble into peer-to-peer networks, and to do all of that privately.
The legal structure is two entities, and the difference decides what the organisation may do. Coin Center Inc is designated by the IRS as a 501(c)(4) social welfare organisation, tax-exempt since November 2015, EIN 47-1315917. Donations to it are not tax deductible, and in exchange a 501(c)(4) may lobby without the ceiling that binds a charity. Separately, CC Foundation, doing business as Coin Center, is a 501(c)(3) with tax ID 33-3365966, and that is the entity through which tax-deductible gifts are taken. Coin Center Inc's Form 990 for the year ending December 2024 reports revenue of 3,596,499, and net assets of $15,313,653.
The output is research, testimony, comment letters and litigation. The litigation page lists Carman v. Yellen, a constitutional challenge to the amendment of Section 6050I that requires reporting of counterparty details on large transfers; Coin Center v. Yellen, the suit against the Treasury over the Tornado Cash sanctions; Jarrett v. U.S. on the taxation of block rewards; and Lewellen v. Garland, brought by a Coin Center fellow seeking a ruling that publishing non-custodial software is not unlicensed money transmission.
Jerry Brito, a co-founder, ran the organisation as executive director through its first decade and is named in that role in the 2024 tax filing. The team page now lists Peter Van Valkenburgh as executive director and Brito on the board.