Crypto is being reined around the world.
Regulators have been tough on crypto in recent weeks. The EU wants to know about all transactions. The United Kingdom forces companies to register while being stingy with licenses. The SEC is trying to set stricter accounting standards for crypto exchanges as it expands the meaning of 'securities dealer.' Overall, crypto is growing fast, but accountability is also increasing.
Anonymous transactions will no longer be allowed in the EU.
The European Union has shaken the crypto world by requiring all crypto transactions to include information about all parties involved.
This bans anonymous crypto transactions and ensures greater transparency for transactions involving un-hosted wallets. In announcing the new rules, the EU said they were intended to curb financial crime. Ernest Urtasun, co-rapporteur for the EU's Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, said that illicit flows of cryptocurrency assets often move undetected across Europe and the world. And the crypto community was quick to denounce the new rules, which still have a long way to go within the EU's intricate policy machine, as counterproductive.
There has been a tightening of the rules everywhere.
As cryptocurrency reeled from new guidelines in the U.S. and U.K., the EU news broke.
The SEC published a new guideline recommending that crypto exchanges record customers' digital assets as assets and liabilities on their balance sheets. Crypto companies must also disclose the 'nature and amount of crypto assets' they hold for customers.
In the U.K., crypto products and services are also under pressure. Companies offering crypto products and services must register with the Financial Conduct Authority.
'It's more like trying to regulate something not understood and feared for irrational reasons,' Fraction's chief legal officer, Cathy Yoon, said. While crypto worries that fear could also be a market-killer, it is fear that kills minds.