U.S. Treasury Secretary Aims to Bring New Requirements on Crypto

The U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin stated to the U.S. Senate Committee that The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen) is all set to release New Significant Requirements related to cryptocurrencies, the process is underway and the outcomes regarding the plan are yet to be discussed on a broader perspective. 

 

FinCen aims to bring up new requirements to ensure that the technology works forward in the right direction.   

 

Mnuchin stated, 

Specifically, on cryptocurrencies, we are spending a lot of time on this, on both an inter-agency basis and with the regulators. We are about to roll out some significant new requirements at FinCEN. We want to make sure that technology moves forward. On the other hand, we want to make sure cryptocurrencies aren’t used for the equivalent of old Swiss secret number bank accounts.

Mnuchin has been persistently giving warning signs that Bitcoin is utilized to perform all prohibited activities like human trafficking, ransomware, drug dealing, etc. He believes that these new requirements will allow keeping a record of where the money goes and to ensure that it is not used in any criminal activities.

 

FinCEN is looking for $819,000 and employees who can work full-time to build a “Virtual Currency and Cyber Threat Mitigation Program” for FinCen. According to them, these funds will allow them to build international capacity that will ensure they have access to critical information for certainly required investigations, which comprises international components.

 

On the same lines, FinCen further states,  

The utilization of software tools will allow FinCEN to double the number of virtual currencies analyses, corroborate findings, and increase big data analytics capability, allowing for automated analytics and visualization of financial and cyber data. The program enhancement strengthens direct support for law enforcement cases to 130 cases per year, the development of 37 strategic intelligence products, and the provision of 50 training sessions per year.

Based on the Budget 2021, there are few proposals concerning cryptocurrency. The budget by Trump states that advancements such as cryptocurrencies and the increase in correlation of the international monetary sector have resulted in complex criminal organizations and inherently linked financial and cyber crimes and later providing finances to terrorists. 

 

As per the new enforcements and requirements for crypto, the government aims to create a secure network for the transactions and investigate the crimes such as cryptojacking efficiently and find the root cause of its occurrence.

 

FinCEN has already been strictly enforcing its rules on crypto service providers operating money service businesses, including exchanges. The crypto exchanges will have to verify the transaction details, identify the original parties if transfers are made of $3,000 or higher and further pass on the information to the existing counterparties, if any.