- Senator Warren recently sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen expressing concern about cryptocurrency firms’ compliance with Russian sanctions.
- He believes he has proof that some cryptocurrency exchanges are not complying with sanctions regulations.
In addition, the United States and its allies have cut off the Russian Central Bank’s access to vast reserves. They have disconnected Russian banks from SWIFT. In addition, financial transactions between the West and Russia are prohibited.
As a result of the decentralized nature of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, some lawmakers are concerned that they could be used to avoid sanctions. Former President Donald Trump and his friends are trying to destroy the economic fallout using cryptocurrencies, and Senator Elizabeth Warren is drafting legislation to put an end to it.
This proposal “seeks to simplify the verification of customer identities and transactions in private crypto wallets, forcing financial institutions to keep detailed records and report directly to the Treasury Department,” according to NBC News.
When it comes to private (i.e., self-hosted) wallet transactions, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has suggested a regulation that “would require banks and money service businesses (‘MSBs’) to file reports, keep records and authenticate consumer identities. On December 18, 2020, former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin proposed a proposal for the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. The bitcoin industry lashed out at the move, arguing that the Trump administration was not only imposing limits without consulting the business but also infringing on Americans’ right to privacy in the process.
Decrypt has not yet responded to a request for comment on Senator Warren’s idea and how it aligns with FinCEN’s draft rules, despite repeated requests.
In previous remarks, Warren raised concerns that cryptocurrency exchanges and other service providers were providing Russia with an avenue to circumvent sanctions. The senators wrote to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner saying that digital assets “allow businesses to bypass the traditional financial system.”
On the other hand, cryptocurrency services and exchanges serve to link cryptocurrency to the existing financial system. Exchanges with significant market capitalization, such as Coinbase and Binance, have said that they are constantly monitoring and complying with all restrictions, thereby shutting down important Russian government pipelines.
In an interview with Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC on Tuesday, Warren stated that “we have a lot of evidence that not all cryptocurrency platforms are actually complying with those laws, and collecting the information, and then reporting the information, and then shutting down where we have consequences.”.
However, there is no strong evidence that crypto actors are working to undermine the sanctions. “It’s not the case that the business is completely one where you can dodge things,” Yellen said last week in response to senators’ questions about cryptocurrency.
