The European Union reached a provisional agreement on Wednesday on anti-money laundering rules for cryptocurrencies. This would compel crypto firms to check their customers’ identities, as a means of regulating the industry.
Opposed by major U.S. exchange Coinbase Global Inc, the rules would also require crypto companies to report suspicious transactions to regulators, in an effort to crack down on money laundering.
Once in the final stages, the rules require approval by several bodies before full implementation. The statement also says that the oversight would ensure that crypto assets are traceable just like traditional money transfers.
“The new rules will enable law enforcement officials to be able to link certain transfers to criminal activities and identify the real person behind those transactions,” said Ernest Urtasun, a Spanish Green Party lawmaker, who is a major supporter of the measure in the EU parliament.
In official correspondence sent to 27 EU finance ministers on April 13, crypto businesses asked policymakers to ensure their rules did not go beyond existing regulations under the global Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a body tasked to set standards for combating money laundering.
On Wednesday, the European Parliament and Council said the proposed regulations would also include ‘unhosted’ crypto wallets, which are run by individuals and not managed by a licensed crypto exchange, for transactions of more than 1,000 euros ($1,044.20) made via service providers.
For more information, read the original story in Reuters.