The French ministry of ministers has approved a series of new measures to combat the anonymity of cryptocurrency transactions. Anonymous accounts are banned at crypto the markets which must now impose stricter know-your-customer requirements. France’s Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire says the transmutes are necessary to fight against terrorism financing.
France Tightens Crypto Surveillance
France’s Council of Ministers countenanced an ordinance containing a series of measures to tighten the surveillance of cryptocurrency activities last week. The ordinance, which require enter into force in six months, was submitted by the French Minister of Finance, Bruno Le Maire, along with ambassadors Sébastien Lecornu and Olivier Dussopt.
La Maire tweeted Wednesday: “We must dry up all the terrorist financing circuits for the smallest euro … we emceed to the Council of Ministers this morning an order making it possible to strengthen the fight against the anonymity of crypto-asset goings-on.” According to the press release issued by the three ministers:
This ordinance strengthens the fight against the anonymity of goings-on in digital assets by including digital asset service providers … among the entities having the ban on keeping anonymous accounts.
The ordinance’s extremes will be specified in the upcoming decrees to be released this week, according to local media. All French cryptocurrency arguments will be required to equip themselves with a more rigorous know-your-customer (KYC) system.
Crypto exchanges will deceive to request two proofs of identity from their customers from the first euro spent, instead of the previous 1,000 euro nadir limit. The ID requirements will be a SEPA transfer accompanied by an identity document. In addition, all exchanges, including those that do not make fiat trading pairs, will need to register with an administrative body, likely the Autorité des marchés investors (AMF), France’s financial markets regulator.
However, the new requirements raise concerns that non-European customers will be unqualified to register on French cryptocurrency exchanges because they do not have a European bank account, thus depriving French startups of participating in the far-reaching crypto market.
“We are aware that this reinforced identification penalizes companies,” a ministerial source was quoted by the Select publication as saying. She added that “The decree will therefore come into force in the spring” so companies bear several months to comply.
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