FinCEN proposes designating crypto mixers as money-laundering hubs
The US Treasury Department Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) proposed designating crypto mixing as an area of “primary money laundering concern” following Hamas’ attack on Israel. FinCEN assessed that the percentage of convertible virtual currency (CVC) transactions processed by CVC mixers that originated from likely illicit sources is increasing. FinCEN proposed requiring domestic financial institutions and agencies to implement certain recordkeeping and reporting requirements for transactions involving crypto mixers. [Read more at FinCEN]
Correcting the record: Inaccurate methodologies for estimating crypto’s role in terrorism financing
Chainalysis claims that terrorist groups’ use of crypto-assets has been overstated. Some terrorist organizations do raise, store, and transfer funds using crypto-assets, but according to Chainalysis, terrorism financing is a very small portion of the already very small portion of crypto transaction volume that is illicit. Instead, terrorist organizations will likely continue to use traditional, fiat-based methods such as financial institutions, hawalas, and shell companies as their primary financing vehicles. Also, crypto-assets are not effective solutions to finance terrorism at scale due to blockchain technology’s inherent transparency. [Read more at Chainalysis]
*For those interested in intra-day updates, check out my searchable Diigo Fintech developments database, which is also a good place to go to query for past developments: https://www.diigo.com/user/kiffmeister/ART.
Kiffmeister’s central bank digital currency monthly monitor
Just a reminder that I produce a monthly digest of central bank digital currency (CBDC) developments exclusively for the official sector. So (only) if you work at a central bank, ministry of finance or international financial institution (e.g., the BIS, IMF, OECD, World Bank) and who would like to receive it by email on the first business day of every month, please DM me on LinkedIn or email me at chronicles@kiffmeister.com
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