Changes to EU law proposed to force companies that send Bitcoin or other crypto-assets to gather information on the recipient as well as the sender.

These proposals would make crypto assets more traceable according to the EU Commission. This would help stop money laundering and financing terrorism.

These new rules will also ban anonymous crypto-asset wallets.

It could take up to two years for the proposals to become law.

The Commission argued that cryptoasset transfers should be subjected to the same anti money laundering rules as wire transfers.

“Given that virtual asset transfers are subjecte to similar money laundering and terrorist-financing risk as wire funds transfers…it, therefore, seems logical to use this same legislative instrument to address these shared issues,” wrote the Commission.

Although some service providers of crypto-asset services are already covered under anti-money laundering rules, the Commission stated that the new proposals would “extend those rules to the whole crypto-sector, obliging every service provider to conduct due diligence upon their customers.”

The proposals require that a company who transfers crypto-assets to a customer must include the following information: name, address, date and birth, account number and name of recipient.

David Gerard, the author of Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain told the BBC that this was just an application of existing rules to crypto. This is what has been happening since 2019.

He stated that even though these were European proposals, their impact would be much greater.

He said, “If you want real money, then you must follow the rules of real cash.”

The proposals must be approved by the member states and the European parliament before they can become law.

Categories: General