The European Parliament approved a package of new measures to combat money laundering in the EU countries, among which it intends to strengthen control over bitcoin and other virtual currencies.
As the press service of the European Parliament reported, the document is the fifth and last update of the EU Directive on combating money laundering. Under the new rules, in order to prevent anonymity, exchange platform crypto, virtual wallets and banking institutions are required to monitor customers, including requirements for customer verification.
In addition, such platforms and storage providers of crypto currency must be registered.
The same requirements apply to companies providing currency exchange services.
The updated directive will come into force three days after its publication in the official EU journal.
Member states of the European Union will be given 18 months to implement new norms in national legislation. Recall that the agreement on the introduction of stricter requirements for crypto-exchange exchanges in the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism was adopted in December 2017.
In February 2018, just three European regulators in the spheres of securities, banking and pension funds warned Europeans about the "high risks" associated with investing in crypto-currencies.
According to representatives of Europol, up to $ 5.5 billion on the territory of the European Union were laundered using crypto-currency.
Soon all anonymous coins will be banned. This trouble does not threaten the ether.
As it should be, such anonymous services like Ethereum Anonymizer will operate outside the jurisdictions, decentralized.