US Treasury backs down: new law for cryptocurrency monitoring will wait for new administration
This is a huge victory for the crypto industry, which was unanimous in opposition to a new anti-money laundering rule that many saw as hasty and draconian.
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US Treasury backs down: new law for cryptocurrency monitoring will wait for new administrationNEWS
In response to a flood of comments, the US Department of the Treasury's Anti-Money Laundering office is slowing down its role in a hasty proposal to monitor an entirely new range of cryptocurrency transactions.
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On Thursday, the Treasury's Financial Crime Control Network, or FinCEN, announced that it was expanding the comment window in response to a law originally announced two days before Christmas and less than a month before a new administration takes over.
The new law, as originally proposed, sought to add new thresholds for registered financial services companies, that is, cryptocurrency exchanges, that conduct transactions with self-custodial wallets, which are only identifiable by their keys. The proposal sparked an uproar within the cryptocurrency community , which saw it as a violation of the principles of peer-to-peer transactions, as well as the rules of procedure governing US regulators.
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The original comment period was extended for just 15 days, many of which were holidays. Today's extension represents a huge victory for the crypto industry. According to the office account: "FinCEN appreciates the robust responses already provided by commenters and has reviewed more than 7,500 comments submitted during the original notice of proposed regulation (NPRM) comment period . "
With Joe Biden's inauguration just six days away, the Treasury leadership is likely to see a major changing of the guard. Few predict that Janet Yellen, Biden's nominee, to replace current Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, will be so aggressive about such transactions.
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FinCEN appears to have given particular credit to arguments that there are different thresholds at play between applying bank-style provisions to cash transactions as opposed to foreign transaction level thresholds to cryptocurrency exchange wallets . Currently, a bank is required to report any withdrawal or deposit greater than USD 10,000 in cash. Meanwhile, the infamous Travel Rule dictates that any transaction over $ 3,000 entering or leaving the United States must convey identifying information about the carriers.
Consequently, FinCEN is giving 15 days to respond to the USD 10,000 threshold and an additional 45 days to respond to the USD 3,000:
"FinCEN is providing an additional 15 days for comment on the proposed reporting requirements regarding information on convertible virtual currency (CVC) transactions or legal tender status digital assets (LTDA) greater than $ 10,000, or added to more than USD 10,000, involving non-custodial wallets or custodial wallets in FinCEN-identified jurisdictions. FinCEN is providing an additional 45 days for comment on the proposed requirements for banks and MSB to report certain information regarding transaction counterparties. of its custodial wallet customers, and on the proposed recordkeeping requirements. "
FinCEN had not responded to Cointelegraph's request for comment as of this writing.
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Joining the proposed thresholds for monitoring cryptocurrencies was another new proposal from FinCEN that would require disclosure of cryptocurrency accounts abroad with more than $ 10,000.
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