The United States’ Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (), which comes under the Treasury Department, is set to release new regulations for digital currencies, Steven Mnuchin, the US administrations Treasury Secretary revealed.
While speaking before the Senate Finance Committee, Mnuchin detailed that the agency has increased its fundings on anti-terror funding measures, “specifically on cryptocurrencies, we are spending a lot of time on this, on both an interagency basis and with the regulators.”
“We’re about to roll out some [for cryptocurrencies] at FinCEN,” he added.
The response came with the concern raised by Senator Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) over the budget increase in monitoring suspicious digital currency transactions and illicit activities using the cryptocurrency.
Multiple regulators after crypto
The Treasury Secretary also detailed that the department is seriously looking in the digital currencies and “spending a lot of time” on preparing a framework. The department is also working with other regulators in the country, however, he did not specify any names.
“We want to make sure that technology moves forward, but on the other hand, we want to make sure that cryptocurrencies aren’t used for the equivalent of old Swiss secret number bank accounts,” Mnuchin added.
This is not the first time he voiced his concerns with cryptocurrencies as in a speech last July he pointed out the urgency in bringing regulations for cryptocurrencies.
“Cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, have been exploited to support billions of dollars of illicit activity like cybercrime, tax evasion, extortion, ransomware, illicit drugs, human trafficking,” he said then.
Meanwhile, a new bill named “” was introduced in the House in December with an objective to clarify which federal agencies are responsible for the regulation of digital assets.
It also categorized and defined various types of digital currencies, a definite positive approach towards regulating the industry.
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