Draft EU law may end anonymity of bitcoin users and allow regulators to monitor their activity

Briefing

March 31, 2017

Briefing	Digital Currencies Regulation – Members of European Parliament published new draft rules on March 9, 2017, expanding Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD) of May 2015 to include regulation of virtual currencies End of Anonymity – Recommends virtual currencies cease being anonymous, allowing watchdogs from individual EU countries to identify users by bitcoin addresses Centralized User Records – Empowers financial regulators to setup and maintain central database of digital currency users and their activities Prevents Illegal Activities – Prevents use of virtual currencies for money laundering and terrorism financing 2017 Implementation – Bitcoin exchanges in Europe could see regulations implemented in 2017, as fourth AMLD will be incorporated into domestic law by June 26, 2017
Accelerator	Web3 Ecosystems, Tokens and Consensus Mechanisms
Market Disruption	Innovation, Competitiveness and Trade, New Payment Technologies
Sector	Financial Services, Information Technology
Organization	European Parliament
Source	Higgins, S., "EU draft law outlines parliament plan to monitor bitcoin users", CoinDesk, http://www.coindesk.com/; Das, S., "New EU draft law seeks to identify bitcoin users, end anonymity", CryptoCoins News, https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/; "REPORT on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive (EU) 2015/849 on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering," European Parliament, http://www.europarl.europa.eu/; AcceleratingBiz analysis
Original Publication Date	March 13, 2017

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