Tougher EU Money Laundering Rules Target Crypto

[zasad@]

https://money.usnews.com/investing/news/articles/2024-01-18/eu-agrees-on-stricter-rules-to-combat-moneylaundering-and-capture-cryptoassets
"The European Union on Thursday agreed tougher anti-money laundering rules for cryptoassets and dealers in luxury cars and yachts, warning that oligarchs and criminals could no longer hide in the 27-country bloc.

Representatives of EU states and the European Parliament reached a deal on the new framework in negotiations that concluded in the early hours.

"It is a good day for EU citizens and businesses, but bad day for oligarchs and terrorists," said Eero Heinaluoma, one of lawmakers who took part.

The EU has long had anti-money laundering rules, but they were applied differently in each member state, making it easier for cross-border crime to flourish.

Danske Bank's admission in 2018 that suspicious payments totalling 200 billion euros ($218 billion) from Russia and elsewhere flowed through a branch in Estonia highlighted the need to improve cross-border cooperation.

Thursday's deal introduces a single EU rulebook for tackling money laundering across the bloc, completing a package that included a new EU anti-money laundering authority (AMLA) agreed last month."

[joniboini]

So they will create new institutions that could intervene whenever a suspicious transaction has been made, but the response from the country where it takes place is slow, they could forcibly take over the checking process. How could they monitor the transactions though? Do EU countries share transaction data in real time? Or anytime a transaction worth more than 1k Euro is being made, every member will get notified? The limit sounds really low, might as well assume every time you make a crypto transaction you are on their watch list for whatever reason. Then again, you already give your data if you use a crypto service like exchange (which is probably the target for this) in the first place CMIIW.

[Poker Player]

Well, one more step in the EU Big Brother. In a way it is to be expected. Besides the rules not only target crypto but cash transactions, which is not surprising either:

Firms under the scope of the new rules will have to identify and verify people who carry out occasional transactions in cash between 3,000 and 10,000 euros.

And I believe that they have not imposed lower limits on this because Germany, which is the country that has the greatest weight in economic matters, is a country where a lot of cash is still used.

So they will create new institutions that could intervene whenever a suspicious transaction has been made, but the response from the country where it takes place is slow, they could forcibly take over the checking process. How could they monitor the transactions though? Do EU countries share transaction data in real time? Or anytime a transaction worth more than 1k Euro is being made, every member will get notified?

It is not clear to me but public administrations are not usually characterized by their speed. I suppose that if this is approved, at least at the beginning things will work in a slow way.

[pinggoki]

As if this will work, money laundering will only be thwarted if the operation isn't protected by someone on the top brass of a government or an institution so the fact that they're doing this is pretty much useless because there's no way that targeting crypto with their laws is going to stop big amounts of illicit money from being laundered so in my opinion, this is just a show that they're against the interest of the people, that they only care about themselves and they don't like the idea of sharing the money laundering pie.

So they will create new institutions that could intervene whenever a suspicious transaction has been made, but the response from the country where it takes place is slow, they could forcibly take over the checking process. How could they monitor the transactions though? Do EU countries share transaction data in real time? Or anytime a transaction worth more than 1k Euro is being made, every member will get notified? The limit sounds really low, might as well assume every time you make a crypto transaction you are on their watch list for whatever reason. Then again, you already give your data if you use a crypto service like exchange (which is probably the target for this) in the first place CMIIW.

That's the essence of what they're doing but we all know how this institution is going to be tangled with red tape and bureaucracy that they're probably not going to be able to do anything that can prevent this money laundering operations. I doubt that they'll be doing any sharing of data, aren't EU countries not too trusting of the other members in the union?

[zasad@]

It is not clear to me but public administrations are not usually characterized by their speed. I suppose that if this is approved, at least at the beginning things will work in a slow way.

If it is a general centralized organization and does not deal with minor violations, then they can change the rules on the market. The more complex the process, the more expensive the service.

In Russia, the service of transporting money with passengers used to be popular, when everyone was allowed to import or export up to $10,000 without declarations.
Although many exchangers in Russia already deliver cash by courier even in Europe.

[tread93]

https://money.usnews.com/investing/news/articles/2024-01-18/eu-agrees-on-stricter-rules-to-combat-moneylaundering-and-capture-cryptoassets
"The European Union on Thursday agreed tougher anti-money laundering rules for cryptoassets and dealers in luxury cars and yachts, warning that oligarchs and criminals could no longer hide in the 27-country bloc.

Representatives of EU states and the European Parliament reached a deal on the new framework in negotiations that concluded in the early hours.

"It is a good day for EU citizens and businesses, but bad day for oligarchs and terrorists," said Eero Heinaluoma, one of lawmakers who took part.

The EU has long had anti-money laundering rules, but they were applied differently in each member state, making it easier for cross-border crime to flourish.

Danske Bank's admission in 2018 that suspicious payments totalling 200 billion euros ($218 billion) from Russia and elsewhere flowed through a branch in Estonia highlighted the need to improve cross-border cooperation.

Thursday's deal introduces a single EU rulebook for tackling money laundering across the bloc, completing a package that included a new EU anti-money laundering authority (AMLA) agreed last month."

It appears that every country is really geared towards tightening their regulations for crypto, I think for the most part this is generally a good thing. Of course this isn't great for the bad guys right haha one thing it surely does is even further legitimize crypto and it also serves as proof that they can't stop crypto but they can try to put as many roadblocks as they can up.

[avikz]

Well that was expected to happen! ECB proposed a draft bill sometime in 2022. It is now becoming a binding legal bill. Overall it's not a very good news for the Bitcoin whales who likes to be involved into illegal things. But a common person with reasonable amount of Bitcoins in holding, should have no problem. I don't honestly see an issue here because as long as you can explain your transactions, there shouldn't be any problem. We cannot deny that cryptocurrencies can be very easily used for illegal transactions. As a supporter of cryptos, I certainly do not want criminals to be a part of this network. So if a legal bill has been passed to control the illegal transactions happening in cryptocurrency, we shouldn't have issues.

[zasad@]

https://money.usnews.com/investing/news/articles/2024-01-18/eu-agrees-on-stricter-rules-to-combat-moneylaundering-and-capture-cryptoassets
"The European Union on Thursday agreed tougher anti-money laundering rules for cryptoassets and dealers in luxury cars and yachts, warning that oligarchs and criminals could no longer hide in the 27-country bloc.

Representatives of EU states and the European Parliament reached a deal on the new framework in negotiations that concluded in the early hours.

"It is a good day for EU citizens and businesses, but bad day for oligarchs and terrorists," said Eero Heinaluoma, one of lawmakers who took part.

The EU has long had anti-money laundering rules, but they were applied differently in each member state, making it easier for cross-border crime to flourish.

Danske Bank's admission in 2018 that suspicious payments totalling 200 billion euros ($218 billion) from Russia and elsewhere flowed through a branch in Estonia highlighted the need to improve cross-border cooperation.

Thursday's deal introduces a single EU rulebook for tackling money laundering across the bloc, completing a package that included a new EU anti-money laundering authority (AMLA) agreed last month."

It appears that every country is really geared towards tightening their regulations for crypto, I think for the most part this is generally a good thing. Of course this isn't great for the bad guys right haha one thing it surely does is even further legitimize crypto and it also serves as proof that they can't stop crypto but they can try to put as many roadblocks as they can up.

The bad guys always used cash dollars. If we assume that the money supply of US dollars is 20.77T dollars at the end of 2023 and the national debt is 34T dollars, then first we need to declare dollars in other countries criminal.
The capitalization of cryptocurrencies is 1.7T, but if we take real data, then most likely, at best, this figure is 10 times less.

[Z-tight]

It appears that every country is really geared towards tightening their regulations for crypto, I think for the most part this is generally a good thing. Of course this isn't great for the bad guys right haha one thing it surely does is even further legitimize crypto and it also serves as proof that they can't stop crypto but they can try to put as many roadblocks as they can up.

They are not trying to stop crypto in this case, but money laundering and the tools that money launderers use to move and send funds, if you read the article you will get that the point is not about crypto in itself, but how to counter terrorism financing and money laundering.

It is worth mentioning that a crypto like BTC is not so suitable for money launderers, because it has a public and transparent blockchain, and criminals have to use privacy tools to avoid being arrested. So criminals even prefer to use cash and also launder money through other tools, so i don't think the focus of the EU is on crypto here.

[tread93]

It appears that every country is really geared towards tightening their regulations for crypto, I think for the most part this is generally a good thing. Of course this isn't great for the bad guys right haha one thing it surely does is even further legitimize crypto and it also serves as proof that they can't stop crypto but they can try to put as many roadblocks as they can up.

They are not trying to stop crypto in this case, but money laundering and the tools that money launderers use to move and send funds, if you read the article you will get that the point is not about crypto in itself, but how to counter terrorism financing and money laundering.

It is worth mentioning that a crypto like BTC is not so suitable for money launderers, because it has a public and transparent blockchain, and criminals have to use privacy tools to avoid being arrested. So criminals even prefer to use cash and also launder money through other tools, so i don't think the focus of the EU is on crypto here.

Yes I see what you are saying it's funny I recently made a post here https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5481982.msg63516183#msg63516183 the disclosed cost from a hacker group POV of the cost of making their BTC anonymous or more simply put the cost to successfully launder the money. In that case (of beer haha ) it was a 300k fee they were asking for assuming that fee covered the cost to exchange BTC into a safe and untraceable or "clean" money

[zasad@]

It is worth mentioning that a crypto like BTC is not so suitable for money launderers, because it has a public and transparent blockchain, and criminals have to use privacy tools to avoid being arrested. So criminals even prefer to use cash and also launder money through other tools, so i don't think the focus of the EU is on crypto here.

There has been a war on cash in Europe for a long time and the amount of cash is greatly reduced. There are countries in Europe where more than 90% of payments are non-cash. Additionally, CBDC will help solve the cash problem and strengthen control.