TL;DR Breakdown
- EU creates more stringent crypto regulations to combat money laundering.
- EU also plans to outlaw anonymous crypto wallets.
- Recent spate of crypto seizure suspected to be used for money laundering may be reasons for EU’s strict regulation plans.
The European Commission, an executive arm of the European Union, has announced plans to put stricter crypto regulation in place.
In a Press Release by the EU, the Commission will mandate crypto firms to collect the multiple sender and receiver personal data in every crypto transaction.
It is understood that the main objective of stricter crypto regulation and data collection is to combat money laundering and other financial crimes.
The Commission aims to achieve full traceability of crypto assets like Bitcoin and be able to detect and prevent the use of these assets for money laundering.
In its press release, EC also stated that anonymous crypto wallets would be outlawed as full EU AML/CFT rules will be applied to the crypto sector.
It will also be made mandatory for companies that process crypto transactions to record their customers’ names, addresses, dates of birth, accounts numbers, and recipients’ names.
One mystery around the strict crypto regulation proposed by the Commission is exactly how these rules will actually be enforceable.
Many non-custodial cryptocurrency wallets are open-sourced, and barring users from accessing them would be challenging, to say the least.
Why stricter crypto regulation?
Weeks back, British police confiscated what was said to be the highest amount of crypto ever seized by the authority. The value of the seized crypto was worth around $250 million.
The seizure followed a $160 million crypto haul the force made about one month ago in an ongoing investigation into international money laundering by the force’s Economic Crime Command.
Also, last month, another 39-year-old woman was arrested on “suspicion of money laundering offenses.”
Police authorities described the spate of seizures as a significant landmark in series of investigations, which will continue for months to come as they continue to close in on those behind suspected money laundering operations.
