The crypto lobby is growing as more firms join the effort to fight rules that attack financial privacy. The Blockchain Association today announced the addition of five new members, with membership now totaling 30 firms. The new members are Uniswap, Blockfi, Fireblocks, CMT Digital and Blockchain Capital. In its tweet announcing the news, the Blockchain Association attributed the rise in membership to its work in presenting an industry response to rules from the United States Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, at the tail end of the Donald Trump administration. The association wrote, "Battling back the FinCEN process …

The United States Treasury Department's now-infamous proposal to require information on crypto transfers from exchanges to self-hosted wallets is back in motion. Per a Tuesday announcement from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, stakeholders will have another 60 days to respond to the proposal. While a marked improvement from the 15-day comment period of the original proposal, unfortunately for the crypto industry, it doesn't look like the actual terms of the proposal have changed along with the administration. The news follows Janet Yellen's confirmation as secretary of the Treasury last night. Shortly after his inauguration, President Joe Biden ordered …

Against great pushback from the crypto industry and as the price of Bitcoin (BTC) has reached new all-time highs several times during the last couple of months, the United States has updated its cryptocurrency Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism laws. Related: COVID-19 pandemic spurs crypto law updates in J5 countries The Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 and the Corporate Transparency Act Last December, the Senate approved the National Defense Authorization Act and, as part of that legislation, passed the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 and the Corporate Transparency Act. Related: EU amends AML laws for crypto trading as US …

One of the first actions President Joe Biden has taken on his first day in office is to freeze Federal regulatory process, including the controversial self-hosted crypto wallet regulations proposed by former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. The announcement came in a White House memorandum for the heads of various federal agencies, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) included. The edict doesn’t specify the crypto wallet proposal, but places a general freeze on all agency rulemaking pending review, effective for 60 days from the date of the memorandum. Crypto industry insiders have lauded the move with Compound Finance General Council Jake …

Every Friday, Law Decoded delivers analysis on the week’s critical stories in the realms of policy, regulation and law. Editor’s note Armed National Guardsmen are building up concentric perimeters of black barricades around the U.S. Capitol and its whole neighborhood of federal buildings in preparation for the Biden inauguration and protests against it on Wednesday. Which inspires some déjà vu, whether to last week or last summer. As much as history is said to repeat itself, the present day seems to be stuck on its own loop. Remember how last week’s Law Decoded was mostly about the handover of presidential …

In response to a deluge of comments, the United States Treasury Department's Anti-Money Laundering office is slowing its roll on a rushed proposal to monitor a whole new range of cryptocurrency transactions. On Thursday, the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, announced that it was extending the window on comments in response to a rule originally announced two days before Christmas and less than a month before a new administration takes over. The rule as originally proposed sought to add new thresholds for registered money services business — i.e., crypto exchanges — transacting with self-hosted wallets, which are only …

Every Friday, Law Decoded delivers analysis on the week’s critical stories in the realms of policy, regulation and law. Editor’s note January takes its name from Janus, the god of transitions and the guardian or the gates of Rome, looking always forward and backwards. So while this has been going on for over two millennia, only a week into 2021 I am thoroughly tired of retrospectives and prognostications. My personal takeaways from 2020 were pretty existential: we are but sentient dust; life comes at you fast; man plans and God laughs etc. But while I grew more suspicious of the …

The United States Treasury Department may have accidentally widened the window of opportunity for anyone wishing to submit comments regarding the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's new crypto rules. Last month, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, proposed rules that would require registered crypto exchanges to verify the identity of people using "an unhosted or otherwise covered wallet" for a transaction of more than $3,000. At the time, the regulator stated that stakeholders would have 15 days to respond with comments, later clarifying that the submission period would end on Jan. 4. However, according to Regulations.gov — the website responsible …

Major venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, also known as a16z, is the latest crypto-related form to oppose a recently proposed regulation in the United States. According to a blog post by a16z general partner Kathryn Haun, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has issued "a rushed, non-vetted rule under the cloak of the holidays that violates the government’s own established rulemaking procedures." FinCEN, which operates under the purview of Steven Mnuchin's Department of the Treasury, introduced a proposed regulation late last month that would restrict money services business, as well as U.S.-registered cryptocurrency exchanges, from transacting with so-called "self-hosted" wallets. Effectively, …

Major U.S crypto firms are rallying against FinCEN’s proposed regulations that would force businesses operating with crypto to gather information on the identities of non-customer counterparties. A Jan. 4 letter from Jack Dorsey, CEO of financial services firm Square takes aim at the proposal for seeking to impose reporting obligations that go “far beyond what is required for cash transactions,” and that Sqaure would be expected to collect “unreliable data about people who have not opted into our service or signed up as our customers.” “Counterparty name and address collection/reporting should not be required for [virtual currency] CTRs or recordkeeping, …

Despite many objections to the truncated timeframe, public comments are due tonight in response to the U.S. Treasury's proposal to require businesses like crypto exchanges to know the identities behind wallets with which they transact. As of Sunday night, the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, had recorded 5,633 responses to its proposed rule. That number is despite the fact that FinCEN gave only 15 days, rather than the usual 60 for responses. The office dropped its announcement on Dec. 18, a Friday evening a week before Christmas Day in the states. Meanwhile, today, the due date, is the …

The United States Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, issued a brief note on Thursday announcing its intention to propose a change in the Bank Secrecy Act regarding reporting of foreign financial accounts holding digital currency. Currently, digital assets are not covered by the Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts regulations. However, the notice indicates that FinCEN wishes to amend these regulations. This would require U.S. citizens to report cryptocurrency accounts held with foreign institutions if they are more than $10,000 in value. There is no indication of when this proposal to amend the regulations may be published, simply that there …