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The United States has an unclear position against the cryptocurrency. Despite this unclear position, however, one of the main US regulatory authorities is pushing the rest of the world to follow the country's leadership in crypto enforcement.
Speaking in front of the American Bankers Association / American Bar Association Financial Crimes Enforcement Conference on Monday, U.S. Department of the Undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Sigal Mandelkar has described his agency's approach to crypto enforcement, while calling for better global oversight.
This story was reported for the first time by CoinDesk.
During the speech, Mandelkar explained the specific tactics used by his agency to monitor and target cryptocurrency users.
Last week, the Office of the Department for the Control of Foreign Resources of the Treasury Department (OFAC) made headlines adding two bitcoin addresses to its list of sanctions. These bitcoin addresses were linked to two Iranian citizens allegedly involved in a ransomware scam.
"While Iranian actors and other bad actors try to abuse the digital currency to facilitate illicit activities, financial institutions, including exchangers and other providers of digital money services, must avoid the risks of assisting these evil actors," he said.
The entire world will benefit when regulators take a stand against illicit cryptographic users
Mandelkar has urged the encrypted companies to take steps to protect themselves from "malicious actors", including those listed on the SDN list. The list of specially designated citizens and blocked persons, or SDN List, is a list of natural and legal persons whose activities are blocked. It is also forbidden for Americans to deal with these individuals and companies.
Some cryptographic companies are already collaborating with US Treasury. Mandelkar mentioned a company that already warned its customers of the sanctions list. That company also shared information on its due diligence process with the United States.
Nevertheless, there is certainly room for improvement, and Mandelkar is encouraging other countries to enforce money laundering and the fight against terrorism financing (AML / CFT). By applying these regulations, Mandelkar believes we can encourage healthy growth in the crypto ecosystem without letting the bad actors contaminate the entire community:
"While the United States regulates, oversees and implements enforcement actions related to virtual currency and other digital asset financial assets, many other countries need to follow suit." We have made it a priority in our international efforts, including through Financial Action Task Force (FATF), for which the United States is currently serving as president ".
The Financial Action Task Force is an international organization led by the United States that aims to provide regulatory clarity to the fintech space, including cryptography. The United States is also involved in regulation and international application through the Financial Crimes Network (FinCEN).
Through these initiatives, the United States hopes to establish greater clarity in the cryptic space, while at the same time fighting individuals who break the law using cryptocurrencies. Due to the lack of regulatory oversight in cryptography, the industry remains invaded by complaints about money laundering and other illegal activities.
The United States has not yet established concrete regulatory standards for cryptography. The SEC has not decided whether tokens should be considered as securities, for example. Instead of developing separate cryptocurrency regulations, however, the United States is simply enforcing existing legislation on new technology. So far, it seems to work as intended to combat illicit activities – although the entire encrypted community would undoubtedly benefit from greater clarity on the part of US regulators.
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