The Dutch Central Bank, De Nederlandsche Bank, want to regulate the cryptocurrencies companies. It means that the institution will require to them a licence to operate in the country.
The Central Bank claims that the measure shall prevent the money laundering and the usage in illegal transactions. To be licensed the cryptocurrency companies need to inform suspects transactions and keep data about all the clients.
De Nederlandsche Bank says that regulation is necessary because the autonomous and decentralized nature of the cryptocurrencies attract criminals. According with the investigation, in the whole world more than US$ 88 millions has washed in more than 46 trades of cryptocurrencies in last two years.
Illict
The ShapeShift AG – based in Swiss, but operating in United States – supposedly processed more than US$ 9 millions in illicit funds since 2016. Previously, the service of trading of altcoins allowed anonymous transactions. But it’s no longer allowed, because the company now is compliance with KYC policies.
On that way, the controversial classifier Backpage would have used cryptocurrencies trades to wash millions of dollar. The Backpage was closed in april of 2018 after be accused by the Justice Department of United States.
Therefore, cryptocurrencies are targeted with mistrust by regulators. To John Williams, CEO of Nova York’s Federal Reserve Bank, those issues hinders the mass adoption of those assets. “The setup or institutional arrangement around bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies [is problematic],” Williams said.
Fiat money for money laundering
Is important to remember that the money laundering also happens using fiat money. In april of 2018, a report of Chief Scientist of Quebec, Rémi Quirion, concluded that bitcoin is wrongly associated with money laundering. The report says that the bitcoin is used just in a small part of criminal money of the world. The main reason is that the currency left a clear and permanent trail in the blockchain.
Following that way, a report published by Elliptic in january of 2018, a company of blockchain analysis, also discovered that less than 1%of all activities in bitcoin between 2013 and 2016 is linked with money laundering. The report concludes that the common sense of illegal usage of bitcoin is not based on data about is used across the world and over the time.
