The United States has been trying to put anti-money laundering laws into cryptocurrency and non-fiat for a while now. They have been implementing AML laws in the country since the early ’80s, and cryptocurrencies are only one of many industries that are affected. In this article, we will talk about what these laws mean for you and how they can affect your financial transactions with both cryptocurrency and fiat.
The United States Government and Money Laundering
The United States government has been trying to implement anti-money laundering (AML) laws into cryptocurrency and non-fiat for some time now. In fact, the country was one of the first to pass legislation specifically targeting these forms of financial crimes. The USA PATRIOT Act, which was passed in 2001 in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, included provisions for combating money laundering.
Since then, the US government has continued to strengthen its AML laws and regulations. In 2006, it passed the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), which requires financial institutions to report suspicious activity to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). The BSA also established new recordkeeping and reporting requirements for financial transactions involving foreign countries.
In 2010, Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which includes several provisions aimed at combating money laundering and terrorist financing. For example, the Act requires banks to know their customers better by collecting more information about them (known as “customer due diligence” or CDD). It also gives FinCEN new powers to impose civil penalties on financial institutions that fail to comply with AML laws and regulations.
More recently, in 2018, Congress passed the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), which imposes sanctions on those who engage in money laundering or help launder money for Russia, Iran, and North Korea. The CAATSA also requires financial institutions
How Crypto Makes it Harder to Trace Money
Cryptocurrency has made it harder to trace money due to the anonymity of the transactions. When traditional currency is used, there are records of who owns what and where the money came from. With cryptocurrency, there is no central authority keeping track of these things. This makes it very difficult for law enforcement to track down money laundering operations.
There have been some attempts to create systems that would allow for more transparency in cryptocurrency transactions, but so far none of them have been completely successful. The most promising solution is the use of blockchain technology. Blockchain is a distributed database that can be used to keep track of all cryptocurrency transactions. If this technology is widely adopted, it could make it much easier to trace money laundering operations.
In 2015, the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added digital currency addresses to its list of sanctioned addresses. This was done in order to prevent people from using Bitcoin to finance terrorist organizations.
In 2016, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) started requiring exchanges to report suspicious activity. The IRS also began asking for user data from Coinbase, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has also been looking into cryptocurrencies. In 2017, they shut down two initial coin offerings that were deemed to be fraudulent. The SEC is concerned about investors being defrauded by ICOs that promise unrealistic returns or do not have a viable business model.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has also been involved in regulating cryptocurrencies. They have jurisdiction over futures and derivatives contracts that are based on digital currencies. In 2018, they launched an investigation into potential price manipulation in the Bitcoin futures market.
Conclusion
The United States is trying to implement anti-money laundering laws into cryptocurrency and non-fiat in order to prevent criminal activity. However, these laws are difficult to enforce due to the anonymous nature of cryptocurrency transactions. In addition, many people are reluctant to comply with these laws because they see them as a infringement on their privacy. Despite the challenges, the US government is still working on ways to make sure that these laws are enforced in the cryptocurrency world in order to prevent criminal activity.
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