cryptocurrency anti-money laundering
Since its inception in 2015, the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDFS) BitLicense has been a source of controversy and debate. Most regulators regard the BitLicense controls as reasonable measures to reduce the inherent risks in transmitting and holding custody of cryptocurrency. However, opponents of the BitLicense see it as expensive, intrusive, and unjustly targeting…
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People use mixers/tumblers as an attempt to preserve privacy when transacting with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies by obfuscating their money trail. These services typically do not require Know Your Customer (KYC) checks, and they are primarily used to anonymize fund transfers between services. This might lead to the logical conclusion that mixers are almost exclusively…
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Bitcoin and blockchain technologies are sparking innovation in financial technology (FinTech), but they do have a dark side. Criminals can use bitcoin for illegal activities and attempt to hide their ill-gotten gains, hoping law enforcement will not track the funds through the bitcoin transaction chain. They also steal huge quantities of cryptocurrency—nearly US$1 billion, according…
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Treasury working closely with the IRS for examination Some surprising facts regarding the state of the cryptocurrency environment recently came from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). Speaking in August 2018 at the Chicago-Kent Block (Legal) Tech Conference, FinCEN’s Director, Kenneth Blanco, shed light on the agency’s approach to virtual currency and…
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Recently released research by CipherTrace has been making the news partly because of some surprising stats. For instance, The Cryptocurrency Anti-Money Laundering Report 2018 Q2 reveals that theft of cryptocurrencies from exchanges skyrocketed in the first half of this year to three times the level seen for the whole of 2017. For all of 2018, these…
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New Presidential Task Force Aims to Fight Cryptocurrency Fraud With the lure of big returns attracting investors—and scammers—to cryptocurrencies, the White House has taken action to protect consumers. President Trump recently signed an executive order creating a new task force that will pay particular attention to financial crimes such as digital currency fraud, money laundering…
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Coinbase’s Response To New York AG’s Request Reveals Shocking Cost of Compliance In April, New York Attorney General’s office announced that it’s looking into thirteen major exchanges, including Coinbase, Gemini Trust, and Bitfinex. Cryptocurrency exchanges have notoriously been subject to robberies, trading capacity problems, and other glitches. Then in February, some Coinbase users began to…
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REINING IN THE WILD EAST Almost five years ago, an event in Japan rocked people’s trust in Bitcoin. Customers of Mt. Gox lost 650,000 bitcoins (worth about $437 million at the time, or $8.5 billion at today’s price), which ultimately shuttered the exchange. That now-infamous implosion was not an isolated incident. Japan has a long…
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Monday, March 19, 2018, President Trump issued the first presidential cryptocurrency order showing that this administration won’t allow cryptocurrencies to evade sanctions. According to Time magazine, Russia played a key role in helping Venezuela to launch the Petro coin and ICO to help the country avoid US economic sanctions. The Executive Order is in response to recent actions…
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