{"id":6900,"date":"2022-04-02T22:01:06","date_gmt":"2022-04-02T22:01:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sygna.io\/?p=6900"},"modified":"2022-04-04T08:57:09","modified_gmt":"2022-04-04T08:57:09","slug":"eu-approves-mica-private-wallet-travel-rule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sygna.io\/zh-hant\/blog\/eu-approves-mica-private-wallet-travel-rule\/","title":{"rendered":"EU Approves Anonymity-Banning MiCA Crypto”Travel Rule for All Transactions”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Introduction<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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On April 1, a day after the EU’s trilogue on its Markets in Crypto Assets<\/a> legislation began, a small majority of the 90 lawmakers in the European Parliament voted in favor<\/a> of traceability regulations that would see an end to anonymous crypto flows in the EU, drawing fierce criticism from the crypto industry, which said the measures would hinder innovation and violate privacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While some in the crypto industry took the news as a bad April Fools’ Day joke, the new regulations are serious business, threatening to create an exodus of crypto companies in the EU and stifle the much-needed innovation and leadership that other regions like Asia (Singapore<\/a>, Japan<\/a>, and South Korea<\/a> in particular) and now also the United States<\/a>, following Pres. Biden’s recent executive order, are seeking. The EU’s latest regulatory vote will require even the tiniest transactions to involve full KYC (Know Your Customer)<\/a>, and further proposals are on the table that would see non-compliant exchanges blacklisted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s take a look at the details of the proposal and how the industry is viewing the development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What Are the New AML Rules for Crypto in the EU?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The proposal to broaden existing anti-money laundering laws (AML) was voted on by both the EU\u2019s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Committee on Justice, Civil Liberties, and Home Affairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the new measures, rules that apply to payments and transfers over EUR 1,000 ($1,114) would be applied to crypto \u2013 except without any threshold, meaning even the smallest movements of crypto funds would be forced to use KYC. This also includes self-hosted or unhosted wallets. The latter is a term used by regulators, including the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN)<\/a> and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)<\/a>, to refer to wallets users keep outside of institutional custodianship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally, the plan had been to limit the new measures to crypto transactions over EUR 1000, as in the case of the traditional finance market, but the legislators said<\/a> an exemption for smaller transfers would make it too easy for criminals to evade the rule with lots of tiny payments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An additional measure talked about in the EU Parliament on the same day would halt all payments and transfers to any service providers deemed \u201cnon-compliant.\u201d Meanwhile, a further measure being pushed by the parliamentarians would see the European Banking Authority (EBA) set up a registry of virtual asset service providers (VASPs) that are at \u201chigh risk\u201d of AML violations, requiring them to perform additional verifications before releasing funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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EU Parliamentarians on Crypto AML Measures<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Back in December, Slovenian Minister of Finance Andrej Sircelj said the proposal would help stop up the gaps in the system that are \u201cmalevolently used by criminals\u201d to launder money and finance terrorism. The sentiment was echoed by fellow legislator Paul Tang, who said that \u201cCrime and corruption aren\u2019t innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Markus Ferber of the European People\u2019s Party criticized the proposal<\/a> as \u201cunnecessary and disproportionate\u201d on Twitter, saying that banning unhosted wallets was more or less the same as banning cash. In a separate statement, he added that such measures would only cause the EU to lag further behind other jurisdictions in innovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Industry Reactions to Crypto AML Regulations in EU<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The crypto sector has been very sharp in its criticism<\/a> of the new EU proposal, with industry heavyweights like Coinbase weighing in to take shots. The exchange\u2019s chief legal officer, Paul Grewal, wrote several days before the measure\u2019s approval that if it were to be adopted, it would \u201cunleash an entire surveillance regime on exchanges like Coinbase,\u201d as well as strangle innovation and undermine people\u2019s ability to keep their crypto secure in self-hosted wallets. Armstrong also said the regulation would subject every crypto transaction to be “Travel Rule eligible”. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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3\/ Every crypto transaction (and not just those with a 1,000 euro threshold, as is the case with fiat) would be \u201ctravel rule eligible.\u201d<\/p>— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) March 30, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote>