US Senator Elizabeth Warren has expanded support for her bill that aims to crack down on the use of digital assets in money laundering.
Warren (D-Massachusetts), a longtime crypto critic, first introduced the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act at the end of 2022 and then reintroduced the 2023 version of the bill this past July.
The bill aims to make the crypto industry comply with the same money laundering rules that apply to the traditional financial system. It would, among other things, extend Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) responsibilities, including Know-Your-Customer (KYC) requirements, to crypto wallet providers, miners, validators, and other network participants.
Pro-crypto lobbying groups have blasted the potential legislation. In April, Jake Chervinsky, then the chief policy officer of The Blockchain Association, said that Warren’s bill is essentially a ban on crypto assets in the US. Chervinsky announced in October that he was joining the crypto venture firm Variant as a chief legal officer.
According to Chervinksy, the bill would prohibit normal activities related to crypto assets, such as staking and mining, effectively banning digital assets.
The crypto advocacy group Coin Center also attacked the bill when it was first introduced last year, calling it “an opportunistic, unconstitutional assault on cryptocurrency self-custody, developers, and node operators.”
Warren, however, says the bill is about closing loopholes.
“The Treasury Department is making clear that we need new laws to crack down on crypto’s use in enabling terrorist groups, rogue nations, drug lords, ransomware gangs, and fraudsters to launder billions in stolen funds, evade sanctions, fund illegal weapons programs, and profit from devastating cyberattacks.”
This week, Warren announced that Senators Raphael Warnock (D-Georgia), Laphonza Butler (D-California), Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland), John Hickenlooper (D-Colorado) and Ben Ray Luján (D-New Mexico) joined the bill as cosponsors.
They join the pool of senators who’ve already agreed to cosponsor the potential legislation, including Roger Marshall (R-Kansas), Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), Gary Peters (D-Michigan), Dick Durbin (D-Illinois), Tina Smith (D-Minnesota), Angus King (I-Maine), Jeanne Shaheen (D-New Hampshire), Bob Casey (D-Pennsylvania), Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut), Michael Bennet (D-Colorado), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nevada), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island), and John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania).
The Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act is currently being considered by the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, according to GovTrack.
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