Concern over new cryptocurrency laws proposed by FinCEN

The FinCEN proposal, which aims to launch a series of modifications to the Bank Secrecy Law for reporting on foreign cryptocurrency accounts, has not been very well received due to the dose of control it represents.

The truth is that the new regulation on foreign bank and financial accounts that FinCEN intends to present has not achieved a positive impact on the cryptographic ecosystem. On the contrary, it has caused an avalanche of opinions and publications in which the public is encouraged to express their voice of rejection against it.

FinCEN prepares to implement new rules

The office of the United States Department of the Treasury, FinCEN, in charge among other things of combating money laundering and terrorism, has taken an important step, with which it intends to carry out what it identifies as an “amendment.”

Thus, through a brief publication the following was mentioned:

“FinCEN intends to propose amending the regulations implementing the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) with respect to reporting of foreign financial accounts (FBAR) to include virtual currency as a type of reportable account.”

Without a specific date in sight to carry out the respective monitoring of the process, what follows is that, if approved, US citizens would have the obligation to report everything that happens with foreign cryptocurrency accounts in which an amount greater than $10,000 is stored.

The reaction of the crypto community

Because it is such a sensitive topic, the opinions have not been long in coming, since there is a prior intention to control cryptocurrency transfers from US exchanges, something that also caused astonishment.

For example, suggesting that cryptocurrency exchanges would have to take on the task of collecting and sharing names and addresses for anyone who sends or receives more than $3,000 in cryptocurrency in a single transaction, Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, said it is a similar proposal with a «too great intrusion» into user privacy.

Continuing with the thread, Monero Outreach was not far behind and went a little further, saying:

“This [law] was not required before, and will not only threaten the privacy of all cryptocurrency users today, but will also impede future creative uses of cryptocurrency.”

Thus, given the level of impact that this initiative carries with it, what is expected is that it has the necessary elements to not negatively alter the cryptocurrency industry, since the weight of regulations of this kind is often so strong that it can turn against it.

To conclude, it is appropriate to bring to the scene the next change of administration that the United States will have, since with the departure of Trump, some dare to mention that this move is nothing more than “a parting shot” towards the flourishing ecosystem.