By
Bhushan Akolkar
April 15th, 2024
Ahead of the departure of the French Presidency from MiCA, the EU negotiators pass the bill to trace crypto transactions and transfers.
As per reports, France is pushing to accelerate regulatory decisions under the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) framework. This happens as the French presidency over the European Council ends today at midnight.
The French leadership is currently looking to score a legislative win in this regard and proceed with further developments with MiCA. The European Parliament passed the MiCA framework earlier this year in March. However, there have been multiple discussions between governing bodies such as the European Council, Parliament, and the Commission.
In early July 2022, Czechia is likely to assume the presidency before the EU goes on vacation from mid-July through August. As a result, the Frech leadership has hinted at regulating the “crypto-asset service providers” (CASPs).
EU Reaches a Deal to Trace Crypto Assets
On late Wednesday, June 29, Parliament and Council negotiators arrived at a deal for passing a bill to trace transfers of crypto-assets like bitcoins and electronic money tokens. Basically, they want to trace crypto transactions similar to traditional fiat transfers. Thus, the agreement is an extension of the traditional finance’s “travel rule”. this requires information regarding the source of the asset, its beneficiaries, etc.
This legislation is part of the EU’s anti-money laundering package, aligned with MiCA. The official press release notes:
“Crypto-assets service providers (CASPs) will be obliged to provide this information to competent authorities. Before making the crypto-assets available to beneficiaries, providers will have to verify that the source of the asset is not subject to restrictive measures or sanctions, and there are no risks of money laundering or terrorism financing.”
The EU bodies noted that crypto-asset transactions easily circumvent existing thresholds. Thus, they have come up with these specific traceability decisions. The negotiators further added that there will no minimum thresholds nor exemptions for low-value transfers.
The rules shall also be applicable to the un-hosted wallets when they interact with any hosted wallets by the CASPs. The press release notes:
“In case a customer sends or receives more than 1000 euros to or from their own un-hosted wallet, the CASP will need to verify whether the un-hosted wallet is effectively owned or controlled by this customer.
The rules do not apply to person-to-person transfers conducted without a provider, such as bitcoins trading platforms, or among providers acting on their own behalf.”
Regulatory in the EU and across the world are likely to tighten their grip in the crypto space amid the current market meltdown.
More crypto-related news can be found here.