Senators Elizabeth Warren, Lindsey Graham, Joe Manchin, and Roger Marshall reintroduced important crypto legislation in July to ensure that crypto companies cannot evade anti-money laundering and terror funding regulations.
The Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act directs the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to implement customer verification procedures and issue guidance to banks on cryptocurrency transactions, particularly those that have used privacy mixers to mask the identity of the user. It also mandates that crypto wallet providers and miners better identify customers.
Warren has long advocated for strict regulations in the banking sector, and more recently she has focused her advocacy efforts on eliminating gaps in the market for digital assets and urging for stronger protections for retail investors and traders.
According to Warren, crypto has evolved into the preferred payment method for rogue states, drug lords, ransomware gangs, and fraudsters in order to launder billions of dollars in stolen money, dodge sanctions, fund illicit weapons programmes, and benefit from deadly cyberattacks. This bipartisan legislation is the toughest plan on the table to combat cryptocurrency crime and give authorities the resources they need to halt the flow of cryptocurrency to criminals.
The current anti-money laundering and Bank Secrecy Act framework must take into account digital assets, and we look forward to participating in this process to protect our country’s financial system against illicit finance in all its forms, agreed the Bank Policy Institute, a trade association that represents financial institutions frequently singled out by Warren herself.
The close connection between cryptocurrency and the drug trade was underlined by Warren last month. The fentanyl trade is being financed by cryptocurrency, and we have the capacity to stop it, according to Warren. It’s time.
Senator Lindsey Graham concurred that cryptocurrency is all too frequently used to transfer illegal payments for kidnappers, terrorist organizations, criminal gangs, and drug cartels.
With the help of our legislation, an industry that frequently aids in illegal activities will become more transparent and subject to inspection. He went on to say that many of the same laws that govern the dollar should also be in place for cryptocurrencies in terms of openness and legality.
