European lawmakers have voted to introduce new legislation designed to stop illicit flows amid industry pushback claiming the measures will stifle innovation and infringe on privacy.
See related article: EU votes against de facto Bitcoin mining ban
Fast facts
- The proposal requires crypto service providers to collect information on senders and beneficiaries in all crypto transactions and must be made available to authorities upon request.
- The mandate removes the minimum threshold for crypto transactions and applies to transfers involving private crypto wallets (unhosted wallets).
- The EU plans to extend rules from traditional payments which obligates the validation of collected information for transactions over EUR 1,000 (US$1,107).
- The proposal faced industry pushback, including from Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, who said the move “eviscerates all of the EU’s work to be a global leader in privacy law and policy.”
- Global crypto markets fell roughly 2% by Friday morning Asia time, with Bitcoin falling 3.2%, according to CoinGecko data.
See related article: Will 2022 be the year of crypto regulation?