European Union has announced that they have new directives in place for cryptocurrency transactions. According to the EU, the approach is to make the usage of cryptocurrencies as much difficult as possible.
Rising Crime Rate Due to Cryptocurrencies
According to the countries that rallied under the European Union, it is important to deal with the rising crime cases due to the adoption of cryptocurrencies.
Due to most of the cryptocurrencies being in a decentralized environment, it is difficult to establish the true identity of people.
Therefore, many criminals and terrorist syndicates manage to get away with their illicit activities.
New Directives to Scrutinize Crypto
In order to deal with criminal activities, the EU has decided to come up with stricter and tighter directives. They are doing this to make things much more difficult for the criminal elements.
They will make things very complex and tighter for the criminals so they will not be able to carry out any illicit transactions.
New Directives Approved on November 6
It was on November 6 when the European Union passed the new directives that would impose a new limit on cash payments.
Despite being approved back on November 6, the EU decided that they will look into further options before they announce its implementation.
The EU now has a new limit imposed on cryptocurrencies that the users can transfer in a single go. The rule will be applied to all the kinds that are part of the European Union.
€1,000 Limit on Crypto Transactions
According to the European Union, it has been agreed that any cryptocurrency transactions that cross the €1,000 threshold will be liable for scrutiny.
The regulatory authorities in the respective country will have the right to investigate the origin of the transaction and know more about it.
They will have a set of measures that they will practice in order to carry out their investigation on the flagged transactions.
The virtual asset service providers (VASPs) will also be made part of the investigation to ensure there are no loose ends.
The information of the users will be acquired to ensure that the person is from Europe and does not have a criminal history.
If any transaction is found to be fraudulent, it will be highlighted and further legal processes will be carried out against the parties involved.
VASPs will follow the Same AML and other regulations
The European Union has made it clear that the VASPs will be operating in the region in accordance with the regulations. They will be as responsible as the other financial institutions operating in the region.
Therefore, they will also need to adhere to the same laws and regulations as other institutions. This will include strict adherence to the anti-money laundering act.
The VASPs will have to make sure that they also collect the necessary personally identifiable information in accordance with the know-your-customer (KYC) guidelines.
AML Guidelines
It is clearly mentioned under the anti-money laundering guidelines that any digital assets service provider operating in the EU must monitor all transactions.
They are to keep a track of all the transactions flowing through their system. If a crypto transaction is over the max transaction limit, then it has to be properly investigated internally and reportedly accordingly.
If any firm is found in breach of these policies, they may face major fines, and may even have their operational license revoked temporarily or even permanently.
Cryptocurrencies have proven to be one of the biggest safe havens for criminal syndicates to launder their money.
Using cryptocurrencies, criminals are able to send funds to different parts of the world without getting caught.
People must understand that these funds are used to empower bad and corrupt elements all over the world.
The same can be used by terrorist organizations to send funds to their members in areas where they want to spread terrorism.
