The US Senate has approved a national defense bill that also targets cryptocurrency mixers. An amendment to the bill tightens surveillance on institutions trading cryptocurrencies.
US Senate passes NDAA, which includes cryptocurrency provisions
The United States Senate passed the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), worth $886 billion, on July 27. The bill includes provisions targeting crypto mixers, anonymity-enhancing coins, and crypto-trading institutions.
The NDAA is a bill that helps authorize how the nation’s defense department can use federal funds. In the bill, a group of senators, including Cynthia Lummis, Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Roger Marshall, made a crypto-related change. The change was created with provisions from the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act introduced in 2022 and the Responsible Financial Innovation Act, which aims to set up railings to prevent another FTX-style incident from occurring in the industry. A knowledgeable person on the subject made the following comment on the subject:
It seems pretty obvious that Democrats have abandoned any stablecoin bill in favor of sneaking this provision in the NDAA. Anyone want to guess what Janet Yellen will decide on whether to allow KYC-free USDC transfers?
seems pretty obvious that democrats have abandoned any stablecoin bill in favor of sneaking through this provision in the NDAA must pass bill.
anyone wanna guess what janet yellen will decide about whether KYC-less transfers of USDC are allowed? pic.twitter.com/sys38GI31z
— Spreek (@spreekaway) July 27, 2023
What is the purpose of the law and what kind of measures does it contain?
More specifically, the change will require the establishment of review standards for crypto. This will help assess the risk. It will also ensure businesses comply with relevant sanctions and money laundering laws. Apart from that, it compels the US Treasury Department to undertake a study aimed at cracking down on anonymous crypto transactions. This includes the use of crypto mixers like Tornado Cash, which are used to make transactions private.
cryptocoin.com As you follow on , in 2022 the Treasury decided to sanction a crypto mixer called Tornado Cash. In line with this, it has banned residents from using the crypto mixer. Its developers designed Tornado Cash for people to anonymize their crypto transactions. However, often malicious actors were used to hide their ill-gotten crypto from attacks and exploits. According to the Treasury, the controls that do not allow the confounding, bad actors in the space to launder money have failed to implement.
Meanwhile, the NDAA includes a change that would require US companies to disclose their investments in China. US Senator Bob Casey said this statement was necessary for the government to understand how much “critical technology” was being transferred to “enemies”.
