• The European Parliament presented a policy document to regulate crypto March 7th.
• The EU is trying to apply existing rules money laundering regulations for crypto transactions as well.
• The EU is not the only sovereign to have raised such concerns.

The European Parliament, which has been at the forefront of tech regulations around the world, is preparing to pass what could be a landmark regulation on cryptocurrencies. On February 7, the Parliament presented a policy plan that aims to curb money laundering and terrorist financing through cryptocurrencies.

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policy document it was led by Assita Kanko, parliamentarian from Belgium, and Ernest Urtasun, parliamentarian from Spain. It seeks to apply current EU regulations on money laundering etc. in crypto transactions. Among them is the “travel rule”, which requires banks and payment service providers to store information traveling between EU countries and make it available to the relevant authorities. At the moment, this rule is applicable to transactions worth €1,000 and more.

The document will be put to a vote in the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, according to a March 6 tweet from committee member Stefan Berger. Berger said the committee will vote on this on March 14, after the final draft of the bill is introduced. He also clarified that the bill will not include any language recommending banning proof-of-work crypto mining.

Proof of Work (POW) is a cryptocurrency mining system, used by tokens such as Bitcoin. The system rewards all miners for lending computing power to crypto transactions and thus consumes as much computing power as the data centers. Since most of this energy comes from fossil fuels, POW mining is said to be environmentally intensive. It was one of the main reasons China expelled miners from its borders last year.

The new policy document also resembles one previously submitted by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) of G7 countries, although it has been submitted independently of the FATF.

EU concerns about the use of crypto to finance terrorism and money laundering have also been echoed elsewhere. Last month, Canada’s deputy prime minister and finance minister, Chrystia Freeland, announced that the country’s government will introduce anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing laws that cover crowdfunding and payment service providers.

“These changes cover all forms of transactions, including digital assets like cryptocurrencies,” he said.
said at the time.

Apart from the EU and Canada, the Israeli Ministry of Defense announced that it seized 30 crypto wallets from 12 accounts that were owned by the Hamas terror group, on February 28.

“The global reach, the speed at which transactions can be made, and the potential anonymity offered by crypto asset transactions make crypto assets particularly well-suited for criminals seeking to make illicit transfers between jurisdictions and operate across national borders. ”, the EU policy document. said.

He added that the Union should “aim to advance the global implementation of the standards established under this Regulation and also to develop the international and trans-jurisdictional dimension of the regulation and supervision of crypto-asset transfers in relation to money laundering and financing. of terrorism”.

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