As everyone waits on new KYC and AML regulators, many speak out to keep unhosted wallets free of controls. Major players in U.S. crypto lobbying are coming out in defense of non-custodial wallets. On Tuesday, the Blockchain Association released a new report presenting policy options for self-hosted wallets to regulators. On Wednesday, Coin Center published…
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The age-old question quis custodiet ipsos custodes crops up in force in today’s Law Decoded. The United States is girding its loins for an election that has cast a pall over a far longer timeframe than we ever should have let it. But, then again, what did you expect when so many people spent so…
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With new changes to the Travel Rule up for discussion and a bevy of new cases in the courts, it’s time to look at how U.S. AML law is shifting to cope with crypto. The ease of laundering money in the U.S. before 1970 boggles the mind. Prior to the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) of…
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The proposed change would cut down FinCEN’s longstanding $3,000 threshold. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and Federal Reserve are looking to get more information on smaller transactions than ever before. According to a notice of proposed rulemaking published on Friday, the agencies want to lower the $3,000 threshold established in 1995 to $250 for international transactions,…
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These week’s news highlighted how governments test new regimes for cryptocurrency, which can be slow but are certainly some kind of progress. A line from immortal comic strip Calvin & Hobbes goes “a good compromise leaves everybody mad.” When it comes to laws governing crypto, authorities are usually asking for pretty major compromises because they…
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FinCEN has fined the operator of early crypto mixers Helix and Coin Ninja for Bank Secrecy Act violations. The founder and operator of some of the first “mixing” services in crypto will have to cough up $60 million to United States regulators, even as he faces continued criminal charges. The U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement…
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Had it been Coinbase or Nexo, he agreed with speculation that law enforcement would have been knocking on the door the next day. Nexo co-founder Antoni Trenchev told Cointelegraph that he believes the information revealed during the recent FinCen leak vindicates the crypto industry. According to the leak, the world’s leading financial institutions cleared over…
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The leaked documents show many banks ‘enabling’ money laundering. Leaked documents from the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) imply that the agency’s revamped efforts to identify illicit transactions and money laundering may not be sufficient. But on this occasion, the institutions described as being at fault are not crypto exchanges, but some of the…
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FinCEN is preparing to modernize its AML requirements for financial institutions to greater respond to the dynamic threats posed by “illicit finance.” The U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has announced it will be changing the anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CTF) rules within the financial sector. The announcement stated that FinCen will be…
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Laundering money with Bitcoin is actually an ineffective strategy because of its complexity and high risk. There is no doubt that digital currencies provide benefits for an individual, a company and an institution by facilitating better access to financial products and services. Money laundering costs the global economy between $800 billion and $2 trillion annually,…
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