US Treasury Seeks Public Comments on Crypto-Related Illicit Finance and National Security Risks – Regulation Bitcoin News

The U.S. Department of the Treasury is seeking public input on “digital-asset-related illicit finance and national security risks.” The department warned: “The growing use of digital assets in financial activity heightens risks of crimes such as money laundering, terrorist and proliferation financing, fraud and theft schemes, and corruption.”

US Treasury Invites Comments from the Public on Crypto-Related Illicit Financing

The U.S. Department of the Treasury published a notice Tuesday inviting “interested members of the public to provide input pursuant to The Executive Order of March 9, 2022, ‘Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets.’” The notice adds:

The department invites comments on the digital-asset-related illicit finance and national security risks as well as the publicly released action plan to mitigate the risks.

“Treasury welcomes input on any matter that commenters believe is relevant to Treasury’s ongoing efforts to assess the illicit finance risks associated with digital assets as well as the ongoing efforts to mitigate the risks,” the notice adds. All comments must reach Treasury by November 3.

“The growing use of digital assets in financial activity heightens risks of crimes such as money laundering, terrorist and proliferation financing, fraud and theft schemes, and corruption,” the Treasury detailed. “These illicit activities highlight the need for ongoing scrutiny of the use of digital assets, the extent to which technological innovation may impact such activities, and exploration of opportunities to mitigate these risks through regulation, supervision, public-private engagement, oversight, and law enforcement.”

Treasury asked for answers to questions about illicit finance risks related to digital assets, tokens non-fungible (NFTs), central finance (defi) and peer-to–peer technologies.

Questions include illicit finance risk, anti-money laundering/countering the financing of terror (AML/CFT regulation and supervision), global implementation of AML/CFT Standards; private sector engagement; AML/CFT Solutions; and central bank digital currency (CBDCs).

One of the questions asks how the Treasury can “most effectively support consistent implementation of global AML/CFT standards across jurisdictions for digital assets.” In addition, the Treasury asked whether there are specific countries or jurisdictions where the U.S. government should focus its efforts “to strengthen foreign AML/CFT regimes related to virtual asset service providers.” The full list of questions can be found here.

Let us know your thoughts about U.S. Treasury’s request for comment on illicit crypto-related finance. Please comment below.

Kevin Helms

Kevin is a graduate of Austrian Economics. He discovered Bitcoin in 2011, and has been an advocate ever since. His main interests are in Bitcoin security, open source systems, network effects, cryptography, and intersections between economics, cryptography, and Cryptography.