According to Elizabeth Rosenberg, cryptocurrency mixers are a “concernnot» in matters related to illicit activities. According to this US Treasury official, it could be very useful to apply sanctions to these entities. Find out how applying sanctions to crypto mixers could be advantageous according to the Treasury.
Fighting money laundering in the crypto industry?
For Elizabeth Rosenberg, sanctions should be applied against cryptocurrency mixers, in order to reduce the risk of money laundering. The Assistant Secretary at the Treasury Department believes that sanctions would deter entities residing in Russia, Iran, North Korea and anywhere else from laundering money through crypto mixers.
Rosenberg said:When penalties can serve as a deterrent to any criminal seeking to use a mixer to launder their funds […]this is an effective way we can use to signal that we cannot tolerate money laundering.She explained, “Anonymity-enhancing technologies such as mixers […] are indeed a concern for understanding the flow of illicit finance and prosecuting it.»
Remember that the US Treasury had prohibited crypto mixers Blender.io and Tornado Cash. This month, it also sanctioned specific bitcoin (BTC) addresses believed to be linked to suspicious groups. It is a group of cybercriminals based in Iran and a Russian neo-Nazi paramilitary group.
For Elizabeth Rosenberg, the US government must show foreign entities that it will not tolerate any use of digital assets for illicit purposes. The Assistant Secretary at the Treasury Department therefore recommends that the United States apply sanctions to cryptocurrency mixers. Still, the previous sanction of Blender.io and Tornado Cash had sparked outrage within the crypto community. The community even intended to bring a lawsuit against the American institutions concerned.
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