The European Union has updated its landmark 2015 legislation, Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive, to include bitcoin and related businesses in its withering two-year-old creation of registering company owners for easier access by EU authorities.
Věra Jourová, European Union Commissioner for Justice, confirmed: “Today’s agreement will bring more transparency to improve the prevention of money laundering and to cut off terrorist financing.”
According to Reuters, “Bitcoin exchange platforms and ‘wallet’ providers that hold [bitcoin] for clients will be required to identify their users, under the new rules which now must be formally adopted by EU states and European legislators and then turned into national laws.”
Bitcoin has been a tear the entire year, causing governments worry about adoption and potential seigniorage loss, as well as taxation hits, more than public pronouncements regarding the digital asset’s use for terror. Nevertheless, the drafted legislation was in direct response to attacks in Brussels and Paris over the last two years, lawmakers claimed.