Speaking before the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Congress that new requirements for cryptocurrencies are underway.
Mnuchin, a long-time skeptic of Bitcoin and crypto, says the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) will roll out significant new requirements to ensure that the technology moves forward in the right direction.
Says Mnuchin,
“Specifically on cryptocurrencies, we are spending a lot of time on this, on both an inter-agency basis and with the regulators.
We are about to roll out some significant new requirements at FinCEN. We want to make sure that technology moves forward. On the other hand, we want to make sure cryptocurrencies aren’t used for the equivalent of old Swiss secret number bank accounts.”
Mnuchin, who has repeatedly warned that Bitcoin is used to support illicit activities like human trafficking, ransomware and illicit drugs, later remarked that the new requirements will allow law enforcement to track where money is going and make sure it’s not being used for money laundering.
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