EU’S NEW CRYPTO LAW WILL BAN ANONYMOUS WALLETS AND FORCE SENDERS TO HAND OVER NAMES AND ADDRESSES

Companies that transfer bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies will be required to retain information about the sender and recipient of the digital funds in order to stop it being used in crimes under a new EU rule. A new law proposed by the European Commission aims to detect suspicious transactions and activities, something that has always surrounded cryptocurrency due to the anonymity of digital wallets. The legislation focuses on a new central authority, the Anti-Money Laundering Authority, that will establish a single integrated system supervision across the 27 countries. It “will ensure full traceability of crypto-asset transfers, such as Bitcoin, and will allow for prevention and detection of their possible use for money laundering or terrorism financing”, the Commission said in a release. “Anonymous crypto asset wallets will be prohibited”, it added. The commission has also placed a limit of €10,000 on large cash payments, in order to make it harder to launder dirty money in large amounts.