Bipartisan Bill Targets Crypto Money Laundering After FTX Crash

Two US senators are proposing a bill to combat cryptocurrency laundering. Someone will say that this is an additional restrictive measure against cryptography.

US Senators Elizabeth Warren and Roger Marshall have introduced a bipartisan bill aimed at minimizing the illegal use of cryptocurrencies. If this proposal became law, the Digital Asset Money Laundering Act would expand some aspects of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), a Nixon-era law passed by Congress to combat money laundering, to cover cryptographic entities such as a wallet. providers and miners of cryptocurrencies.

Two US Senators Propose Bill to Combat Crypto Money Laundering

Specifically, this new law will apply Know Your Customer rules to these entities, requiring the Treasury Department’s Financial Crime Enforcement Network (FinCeEN) to operate them as financial services businesses. Another expansion of the BSA will require U.S. citizens to file a form with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) every time they make digital asset transactions worth more than $10,000.

In addition, this law will allow FinCEN to implement a rule proposed by the agency at the end of 2020 that would require financial institutions to report transactions related to “unlisted” digital wallets. According to CoinDesk, these are wallets in which the contents are completely controlled by the user, and not by an exchange or other third party. The law also prohibits financial institutions from using or trading in mixers, which are often used to disguise the origin of funds.

Some will say that an additional restrictive measure against cryptography

“Corrupt countries, oligarchs, drug lords and human traffickers are using digital assets to launder billions of stolen funds, evade sanctions and finance terrorism,” said Senator Warren. “The crypto industry should follow common sense rules like banks, lenders and Western Union and this legislation will ensure the same standards for similar financial transactions. This bipartisan bill will help close existing anti-money laundering gaps and strengthen law enforcement to better protect US national security.”

This anti-crypto money laundering initiative by Senators Warren and Marshall comes a day after the filing of indictments by the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission against FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. time constraints, the likelihood that this project will go quickly is very small. The two senators will likely have to propose it again next year.