Senator Warren wants to extend anti-money laundering rules to crypto miners and validators

1 month ago

US Senator Elizabeth Warren said immoderate caller crypto regulation, including the recently projected regulatory model for the stablecoin market, indispensable see the afloat suite of anti-money laundering authorities that the Treasury Department requested successful November 2023.

In an April 16 letter addressed to US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Senator Warren articulated her stance and advocated for the hold of Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) obligations to screen miners, validators, and DeFi intermediaries alongside stablecoin issuers.

Warren’s argument

According to her, immoderate regulatory frameworks for stablecoins would fold the assemblage “deeper into the banking strategy [and] volition supercharge trading successful the crypto market, exploding the opportunities for terrorists and different atrocious actors to exploit those financing channels to some evade sanctions and person a limitless watercourse of untraceable income.”

Senator Warren further emphasized cryptocurrencies’ perceived nationalist information threats, citing Treasury Deputy Secretary Adewale Adeyemo‘s caller testimony earlier Congress.

She highlighted instances wherever violent entities similar Hamas reportedly exploit blockchain technologies for their fundraising and claimed that the heavy sanctioned state Iran, for instance, derives important gross from validating blockchain transactions and mining Bitcoin.

Consequently, she argued that “excluding miners, validators, and different intermediary nodes successful the DeFi strategy from the stablecoin legislation’s AML/CFT requirements would let atrocious actors to nett from the summation successful crypto trading that stablecoin authorities would provide.”

Warren added:

“Any authorities that enhances the attractiveness of crypto to mean crypto traders volition multiply money-making opportunities for sanctioned entities similar Iran and the transgression underground.”

Crypto assemblage reacts

Warren’s latest missive astatine the emerging manufacture has drawn respective reactions from crypto stakeholders.

Custodia Bank CEO and laminitis Caitlin Long said Warren’s missive wholly missed the hazard to the banking strategy and urged the lawmaker to “consider consulting idiosyncratic who really de-risked a ample bank, alternatively of blindly spewing talking points.”

Similarly, a pro-crypto campaigner gunning for Warren’s Senate seat, John Deaton, opined that the missive further shows that she “is moving hard connected behalf of the banking industry.”

The station Senator Warren wants to widen anti-money laundering rules to crypto miners and validators appeared archetypal connected CryptoSlate.

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