US senators have unveiled a new bipartisan bill to crack down on crypto money laundering
- US Senators are cracking down on money laundering via cryptocurrency in a new bill on Wednesday.
- Senators Elizabeth Warren and Roger Marshall proposed the bill titled "Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2022."
In a bipartisan effort, US Senators Elizabeth Warren and Roger Marshall have unveiled a new bill to crack down on money laundering via cryptocurrencies.
The bill, titled "Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2022," could amp up know-your-customer (KYC) requirements in an effort to deter bad actors in the nascent space. If it becomes a law, wallet providers, cryptocurrency miners, validators, and mixers could be classified as money service businesses.
"I've been ringing the alarm bell in the Senate on the dangers of these digital asset loopholes, and I'm working in a bipartisan manner to pass common-sense crypto legislation to better safeguard U.S. national security," Warren told CNN on Wednesday.
Warren, who has been a long-time outspoken critic of digital assets, says that she wants the industry to comply with the same money laundering rules as traditional financial institutions.
"Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, our government enacted meaningful reforms that helped the banks cut off bad actors' from America's financial system," Marshall said in a statement.
Marshall added: "Applying these similar policies to cryptocurrency exchanges will prevent digital assets from being abused to finance illegal activities without limiting law-abiding American citizens' access."
The news comes just two days after disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried's arrest, the dethroned exec whose exchange reportedly lost at least $8 billion of customer money. US prosecutors are accusing Bankman-Fried of defrauding investors in a years-long scheme.
"We allege that Sam Bankman-Fried built a house of cards on a foundation of deception while telling investors that it was one of the safest buildings in crypto," Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler said in a statement on Tuesday.