Key Points
- The US Department of Treasury is not trying to ban crypto mixing services.
- FinCEN’s 2023 proposal is about transparency, a top official says.
According to the latest reports, the US Department of the Treasury is not trying to ban crypto mixing services, but to highlight the importance of transparency.
Brian Nelson, the Treasury’s Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, recently spoke at the annual Consensus conference in Austin, Texas.
He addressed the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s (FinCEN) 2023 proposal to classify mixers as a “primary money laundering concern” and required virtual asset service providers (VASPs) to report any crypto transactions that involved mixing to the agency.
US Treasury denies trying to ban crypto mixers
FinCEN’s proposal along with more actions taken recently by the US DOJ against Samourai Wallet and Tornado Cash, have been seen in the crypto industry as evidence that authorities are trying to ban crypto mixers in the US. Now, it seems that the Treasury is denying such intentions.
Nelson reportedly said that this proposal is not a ban on crypto mixers, but a proposed rule designed to drive transparency.
He said that he understands crypto users’ desire for financial privacy, but also suggested that the industry and Treasury should work together in order to find ways to enhance privacy without enabling terrorist financing along the way.
Nelson said that from their perspective there’s a difference between obfuscation and anonymity enhancing services that support privacy.
He explained that they recognized that in the public blockchain context, there’s a desire to have a certain degree of privacy.
Nelson concluded that they want to work with the crypto industry to identify and collaborate tools that can enhance privacy.
Privacy is a subject that has been recently addressed a lot in the crypto industry and one vocal figure supporting it was Edward Snowden.
He recently shared a post on his X account, telling Bitcoin developers that he’s been warning them for ten years about the fact that privacy has to be provided for at the protocol level. He said that the clock was ticking and this was his final warning.
