Privacy-Enhancing Crypto Coins Could Be Banned Under Leaked EU Plans!!!

The European Union could ban banks and crypto providers from transactions in privacy-enhancing coins like zcash, monero and Dash under a leaked draft of a money laundering bill obtained by CoinDesk.
The plans by Czech officials, who are chairing talks between EU governments on the proposed law, represent the latest nail in the coffin for anonymous payment methods following new rules passed over the summer.
“Credit institutions, financial institutions and crypto-asset service providers … will be prohibited from owning coins that enhance anonymity,” CoinDesk said in a Nov. 9 draft of the law, which was circulated to the bloc’s other 26 member states for comment. .
An EU diplomat told CoinDesk that the measure specifically targets the risk arising from crypto-assets designed for traceability. The ban on privacy coins is intended to mirror the anonymity tools included in the original bill proposal, such as bearer shares and anonymous accounts, to prevent intrusion into blockchain functionality.
The diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because talks are being held behind closed doors, said the proposal for text talks was a response to demand from countries.
The European Commission proposed anti-money laundering regulation in July 2021 as part of a package to ban large cash transactions and created a new anti-money laundering agency, AMLA, to oversee training at large financial institutions.
Under the plans, crypto asset providers will occasionally need to verify the identity of users even for transactions as low as 1,000 ($1,040) and scrutinize the nature and purpose of the business for larger payments. This makes the rules more onerous than for other types of institutions due to fears that crypto bank payments could easily be broken down into smaller chunks.
Crypto service providers doing business outside the EU must verify in the proposed document whether their counterparty is licensed and what anti-money laundering controls they have in place, along with the vetting details prescribed by the AMLA.
In their parallel amendments to the bill, lawmakers in the European Parliament zeroed in on dirty money processing through metaverse, decentralized finance and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). For a bill to pass into law, the Council and Parliament must agree to an agreement.
Also, it maintains a fresh grip on online anonymity — which has vested interests but also worries regulators when it is used to process criminal funds, lift sanctions or raise money for terrorists and others.
In August, the U.S. The Treasury has imposed sanctions on Tornado Cash, an Ethereum-based privacy tool used to raise money for North Korea’s weapons program — the first time powers have been used against the decentralized protocol.
The EU’s own market barriers include the Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA), agreed but not yet in force, which prevents exchanges from allowing anonymous crypto trading until the holder’s assets are identified. Similar rules on the transfer of funds impose additional checks on operators such as Mon or Dash.