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The US Treasury Department Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) proposed designating crypto mixing as an area of "primary money laundering concern" following Hamas' attack on Israel. FinCEN assessed that the percentage of convertible virtual currency (CVC) transactions processed by CVC mixers that originated from likely illicit sources is increasing. FinCEN proposed requiring domestic financial institutions and agencies to "implement certain recordkeeping and reporting requirements" for transactions involving crypto mixers. https://www.fincen.gov/sites/default/files/federal_register_notices/2023-10-19/FinCEN_311MixingNPRM_FINAL.pdf

The U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) announcied its intention to propose a change in the Bank Secrecy Act, regarding reporting of foreign financial accounts holding virtual currency. Currently, digital assets are not covered by the Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts regulations. However, the notice indicates that FinCEN wishes to amend these regulations to require the reporting of virtual asset accounts of more than $10,000 held with foreign institutions by all U.S. citizens, residents, corporations, partnerships, limited liability companies, trusts and estates. https://www.fincen.gov/sites/default/files/shared/Notice-Virtual%20Currency%20Reporting%20on%20the%20FBAR%20123020.pdf

The U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is extending further the comment period for its recent proposed rulemaking regarding certain crypto-asset transactions. The proposed rule would impose new know-your-customer requirements on crypto-asset transfers to personal ("unhosted") wallets. Users would have to provide detailed personal information for transactions greater than $3,000, and exchanges would be required to report either individual or groups of transactions that add up to more than $10,000 during a day to FinCEN. The original comment period was only 15 days, most of which were holidays, and then on January 14, it gave stakeholders now have an extra 45 days to comment on the first ("$3,000") rule proposal, and 15 days on the second ($10,000) one. Now the deadline has been extended to 60 days from when the January 26 extension notice is published in the Federal Register.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a bureau of the U.S. Treasury Department, issued a fact sheet spelling out that the information that institutions are permitted to share under the 2001 Patriot Act. Overall, the sheet seemingly lowers the obstacles for further sharing of personal customer information among banks, the threshold of what qualifies as "suspicious" activity and whether the entities sharing customer information even need to be financial institutions. https://www.fincen.gov/sites/default/files/shared/314bfactsheet.pdf

The U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network views all stablecoins, whether backed by a currency, a commodity, or even an algorithm, as falling under their remit to protect "money transmission services, and all stablecoin administrators must register as a Money Services Business with FinCEN.

On August 19, the U.S. Treasury Department withdrew a contentious 2020 Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) proposal that would have required banks and money service businesses to submit reports and verify the identity of customers in transactions involving convertible virtual currency or digital assets held by crypto wallet software. These wallets are managed directly by individuals without third-party intermediaries. The proposal faced widespread opposition from the U.S. crypto industry, which argued that the rule was unfeasible.

Over the last few weeks, the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, has been inundated with 7,477 angry comments about a rule change it proposed just before Christmas. They are upset not only about the reduced usability and less privacy with the new rule, but they also claim it creates a double standard between crypto transactions and legacy cash transactions that occur between financial institutions and individuals. But JP Koning disagrees, But I disagree with these claims about unfairness - crypto-assets are merely inheriting the same regulations that already apply to other forms of money transfer.

In response to a deluge of comments, the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is reopening the comment period for its recent proposed rulemaking regarding certain crypto-asset transactions. The proposed rule would impose new know-your-customer requirements on crypto-asset transfers to personal ("unhosted") wallets. Users would have to provide detailed personal information for transactions greater than $3,000, and exchanges would be required to report either individual or groups of transactions that add up to more than $10,000 during a day to FinCEN. The original comment period was only 15 days, most of which were holidays. Stakeholders now have an extra 45 days to comment on the first ("$3,000") rule proposal, and 15 days on the second ($10,000) one.

U.S. CFTC, FinCEN, and SEC leaders issued a joint statement to remind persons engaged in activities involving digital assets of their anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT)obligations under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA).

BitMEX has reached a $100 million settlement with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) for illegally operating a cryptocurrency trading platform and anti-money laundering violations. In addition, the company will be required to hire an independent consultant to conduct a historical analysis of its transactions to determine if it failed to properly report suspicious activity. Today's consent order bars BitMEX from selling certain types of crypto investment contracts in the U.S. without registering with the CFTC.

Congress wants the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to up its internal blockchain game with a new bill to study how the technology could be adapted for law enforcement.

U.S. President Joe Biden has frozen all Federal regulatory processes, including the self-hosted crypto wallet regulations proposed by former Administration. The announcement came in a White House memorandum for the heads of various federal agencies, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) included. The edict doesn't specify the crypto wallet proposal, but places a general freeze on all agency rulemaking pending review, effective for 60 days from the date of the memorandum.

U.S. crypto-asset users hoping to transfer their holdings from an exchange to their own personal wallets may need to comply with new know-your-customer (KYC) requirements under a rule proposed by the U.S. Treasury. Users would have to provide detailed personal information for transactions greater than $3,000, and exchanges would be required to report either individual or groups of transactions that add up to more than $10,000 during a day to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). The Treasury has given stakeholders 15 days to respond with comments.

The U.S. Federal Reserve and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FINCEN) proposed reducing the thresholds at which banks must collect and store fund transfer information, from $3,000 to $250 for any transfers that go outside the United States. The proposal would also widen the agencies' definition of "money" to explicitly include crypto-assets ("convertible virtual currencies"). https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/files/bcreg20201023a.pdf

The U.S. Treasury Department Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FINCEN) officially withdrew its proposed rule, introduced in 2020, that would have imposed know-your-customer (KYC) requirements on unhosted wallets. Basically, it became clear that it would be practically impossible for exchanges and other virtual asset service providers (VASPs) to implement the proposed rules. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/08/16/2024-16461/semiannual-agenda#p-72

The U.S. is joining regulators around the globe in moving to enforce tougher cryptocurrency anti-money laundering policies. At a hearing before the Senate Finance Committee, U.S. Treasury Secretary Mnuchin warned that the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FINCEN) is getting ready to put out "significant new requirements" around virtual currencies.

Facebook's Diem project is shifting its main operations from Switzerland to the United States, and withdrawing its application for a license from Switzerland's FINMA, as it is not required under the new model. Diem will partner with Caliafornia state-chartered Sivergate Bank who will become the exclusive issuer of Diem's USD stablecoins and will manage the USD reserve. And Diem Networks US will register as a money service business (MSB) with the U.S. Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

Binance has deployed CipherTrace Traveler to enable the exchange's compliance with global "travel rule" regulations. Traveler is designed to support Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs), including cryptocurrency exchanges, custody providers, OTC trading desks, banks and other financial institutions, to achieve compliance with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's (FinCEN) and the Financial Action Task Force's (FATF) travel rule regulations.

Crypto companies have filed 7,100 Suspicious Activity Reports (SAR) since May.

Here's MoneyGram's pocket guide to the FINCEN reporting requirements.