Experts predict that Bitcoin ATMs (BATMs) will face stricter regulations worldwide, with countries including Canada and Germany already moving to tighten up anti-money laundering requirements. A June 2 report from CipherTrace estimates that 74% of transactions made from U.S.-based Bitcoin ATMs were sent out of the country during 2019. The report also found that 88% of funds sent from U.S. crypto ATMs to virtual currency exchanges were transferred overseas. The figure has seen exponential growth over recent years, doubling annually since 2017. In an interview with Law360, CipherTrace CTO John Jeffries predicted that BATMs will become “a greater point of …

On May 26, Tommaso Mancini-Griffoli, a representative from the International Monetary Fund, stated that moving forward, the best way to harness the potential of central bank digital currencies would be by fostering synthetic partnerships between the private and public sectors. Further expounding his views on the matter, the deputy division chief of the IMF’s monetary capital and markets department stated that the vision behind CBDCs being completely under the control of a central bank is now an outdated one and that the entry of private players could help spur innovation. When asked about how such a partnership could even start …

Researchers say 2020 is on track to become a second-worst year for cryptocurrency-related thefts, hacks and fraud. Digital asset intelligence firm CipherTrace released a report on June 2 revealing that in the first five months of this year so far, the value of ill-gotten funds siphoned through cryptocurrency crimes has reached almost $1.4 billion. This makes it possible that the amount of funds lost to bad actors in 2020 will outstrip the $4.5 billion lost in 2019, This makes it possible that 2020 will be the worst year for cryptocurrency losses to crime behind 2019, which saw net losses of …

Cryptocurrency exchanges and payment processors are now legally recognized as Money Service Businesses (MSB) within Canada. June 1 saw the enactment of amendments to Canada’s Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act that were passed in June 2019 to address holes in the then-existing framework. Candian crypto firms must now report all transactions exceeding 10,000 Canadian dollars ($7,403), and register and comply with the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC). Recognition brings relief On May 29, the CEO of Canadian crypto asset exchange BullBitcoin, Francis Pouliot, tweeted: “Today is my last day as an unregulated …

Binance Korea will be monitoring activity on its platform for signs of money laundering thanks to a solution developed by Coinfirm. The partnership, announced on Monday, will help Binance’s Korea branch remain compliant with Anti-Money Laundering egulations resulting from the Financial Action Task Force’s Travel Rule. Coinfirm provides a blockchain-agnostic AML platform offered to various institutions dealing with cryptocurrencies. Their previous clients include European banks, blockchain projects such as XRP and RSK, custodians such as Xapo and the government of Gibraltar. As Cointelegraph previously reported, Binance already integrated Coinfirm’s solution on its main platform back in October. Nevertheless, the main …

Regulations are not going anywhere. On the contrary, financial service providers face more regulatory challenges and higher costs than ever before. During the early days of cryptocurrencies, a “Wild West” culture emerged when regulators, uncertain on how to tackle this thing called blockchain, paid little attention to the thefts, scams and hacks plaguing the virtual-asset market. Today, this is no longer the case. No matter their roots, every virtual asset project from Telegram to Shapeshift to Libra is ramping up compliance while regulators continue to issue guidance, enforce regulations and pay closer attention to digital securities platforms, crypto exchanges and …

On May 28, the Digital Dollar Project released its white paper, a 30-page document detailing the potential applications of a CBDC. The white paper continues the nascent think tank’s work to push forward development of a digital dollar. The project and the tenets of the new white paper The paper details certain core tenets of what it considers a digital dollar and what it will push forward. The Digital Dollar Project was founded by former leaders of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and professional services company Accenture. One of those founders is Daniel Gorfine, the head of the CFTC’s fintech …

In a May 27 interview sponsored by Chainalysis, Director of the United States Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) Kenneth Blanco was adamant that the regulator is not the enemy. “This technology belongs to all of us” FinCEN is the governing body that enforces the Bank Secrecy Act in the U.S., requiring financial institutions to provide know-your-customer (KYC) information. It’s a contentious topic within crypto, so it is no surprise that Blanco was careful to portray FinCEN as a part of the environment. Blanco lamented “that we’re allowing a technology that could be so beneficial to be hijacked by people,” continuing …

An Australian woman was arrested by police at a Sydney shopping center on May 1 after allegedly selling Bitcoin (BTC) for 60,000 Australian dollars ($38,800) in cash. According to a report from Daily Mail Australia, the woman is accused of having run a money laundering syndicate in the country since 2017. Caught red-handed During the arrest of the 52-year-old, police seized AU$60,000 in cash, 3.8 BTC (worth $37,000 at current prices) and a mobile phone. Later, officers searched a nearby apartment, finding more mobile phones, computers and electronic storage devices, along with a further $11,700 worth of Bitcoin. The woman …

CoolBitX Founder Michael Ou believes regulators in Asia are leading the way when it comes to compliance with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) travel rule, which is due to be implemented in June. The startup has developed a solution to the travel rule, called Sygna Bridge, which allows exchanges to communicate the identities of the senders and receivers of each transaction. On May 7 it announced it had conducted a series of cross-border transfer tests that demonstrated Sygna Bridge’s effectiveness in complying with the FATF guidelines by verifying transactions against the names of known terrorists and drug dealers. Singapore …

Last year, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) asked global jurisdictions to adopt its anti-money laundering, or AML, guidelines for crypto. As the apparent deadline is just a few weeks away, some regulation experts believe that the deadline is not the case, while the actual adoption is a matter of years. On May 12, global legal and regulatory experts alongside executives in the crypto industry gathered at a Consensus: Distributed panel to discuss the FATF’s crypto guidelines. Travel rule’s June 2020 deadline “is a bit of a myth” At the virtual event, Siân Jones, a convener of the Joint Working …

A newly unearthed report from South Korea’s financial watchdogs has revealed the rationale behind the country’s 2018 crypto crackdown that played a featured role in ‘Crypto Winter’. Digital Today dug up the “2017 Anti-Money Laundering Annual Report” which showed the Financial Intelligence Unit had identified more than half a million crypto transactions in South Korea in 2017 related to illegal activities. The 519,908 crypto transactions were flagged by authorities as “suspicious” and the upswing in money laundering fuelled the national government’s decision to carry out a partial crypto crackdown in 2018. The report took several years to be made public, …