Argentina To Regulate Crypto Firms To Fight Money Laundering

Key Insights:

• Argentina is set to include cryptocurrency firms in its anti-money laundering regulations.
• Argentinian crypto community has condemned a prospective anti-crypto measure that comes with the IMF agreement.
• Crypto and money laundering regulations across the world are tightening.

According to the Buenos Aires Times, Argentina is preparing to include cryptocurrency businesses in its overall anti-money laundering (AML) regulatory scheme.

Argentina’s Unidad de Información Financiera (UIF), which is in charge of money laundering risks, is reportedly considering adding crypto companies to the list of businesses that must submit AML reports.

If these rules are passed, it will significantly impact the way cryptocurrency companies deal with regulators in Argentina. These businesses are currently only required to follow tax reporting guidelines for 2019.

According to a source familiar with the situation, the new law is set to go into effect in 2022. Crypto businesses will be required to follow KYC standards and report unusual transactions in cryptocurrency.

The State of Crypto in Argentina

Argentinians working in the cryptocurrency industry have slammed a prospective anti-crypto restriction that the IMF agreement has introduced.

The deal, which restrains and provides more resources to Argentina to pay its $45 billion debt to the IMF, also suggests a series of steps intended to suffocate the growth of the crypto industry in the country.

According to some in the country, this implies implementing rules and measures that may dampen cryptocurrency adoption in the nation.

Following the reports of regulations targeting cryptocurrency, a non-profit organization called Bitcoin Argentina has written to the government requesting all data regarding implementing these new measures intended to stifle bitcoin adoption in the country.

Franco Bianchi, CMO of Lemon, an Argentine startup that provides cryptocurrency payments solutions, said,

“Work in a context of clear rules that encourage the adoption of crypto assets.”

Another well-known crypto enthusiast, Franco Amati, stated that he thinks this was intended to stifle a possible effort at bitcoin financing, such as the one El Salvador is considering.

Crypto and Money Laundering Regulations

This is not the first time a regulatory authority responsible for combating money laundering has targeted crypto companies.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the United Kingdom implemented a similar policy in March 2021.

Crypto firms – as determined by the FCA – have been compelled to submit annual financial crime reports since then, which include statistics on the number of suspicious activity reports filed during that period.

The United States and the European Union have recently made significant regulatory changes to cryptocurrency policies.