cryptocurrency anti-money laundering
On July 5, 2021, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) completed its second 12-month review of the implementation of its revised Standards on virtual assets and virtual asset service providers. This review looks at how jurisdictions and the private sector…
On March 23, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) updated its Know Your Customer (KYC) guidance on money services businesses (MSBs) and foreign money services businesses (FMSBs). FINTRAC classifies Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) as MSBs, meaning they too must comply…
During her confirmation hearing on January 19, Janet Yellen, President Joe Biden’s pick for Secretary of the Treasury, stated "many" cryptocurrencies are “a particular concern” when it comes to terrorism and criminal financing. This statement was in response to a question on how the US can curtail…
Cryptocurrency, digital asset, convertible virtual currency… there seems to be an endless list of terms for the same concept. If that wasn’t enough, a cryptocurrency exchange can also be referred to as a Virtual Asset Service Provider(VASP), Virtual Asset Entity,…
November 20, 2020 CipherTrace has filed their second Monero tracing patent application— Techniques and Probabilistic Methods for Tracing Monero. This follows on their first patent application Systems and Methods for Investigating Monero. These patents cover: Forensic tools to explore Monero…
This blog is an excerpt from the upcoming CipherTrace 2020 Cryptocurrency Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Report In October 2020 FinCEN released a proposed rule change, lowering the threshold for travel rule information sharing and retention from $3,000 to $250 for…
This blog is an excerpt from the upcoming CipherTrace 2020 Cryptocurrency Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Report In first half of 2020 DeFi took up 45% of all thefts and hacks ($51.5M or 40% of hacked volume). In second half of…
On October 1, the US Department of Justice announced the indictment of four BitMEX executives, charging the group with violating the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), and conspiring to violate the BSA by "willfully failing to establish, implement, and maintain an adequate anti-money laundering (“AML”) program." On the…
As the severity and sophistication of ransomware attacks continue to rise across various sectors around the world, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence issued two advisories to assist US individuals and businesses in efforts to combat ransomware scams…
Taking center stage in a key-note address at the virtual 2020 ACAMS Las Vegas Conference, FinCEN Director Kenneth A. Blanco clarified a long-standing confusion banks have had regarding their exposure to cryptocurrencies and the steps they must take the mitigate…