EU lawmakers will vote to block anonymous crypto payments next week: report

The Economic Affairs Committee at the European Parliament will reportedly also look to include crypto transfers to private wallets in AML checks, according to the report.

Lawmakers in the European Parliament are reportedly set to vote on new legislation aimed at ending anonymous crypto payments, according to a report published on Friday by CoinDesk.

According to the publication, documents showed the vote will take place this coming week. It is expected this will happen during a committee meeting of the parliament’s Economic Affairs Committee, the report added.

Lawmakers will be looking to ratify the removal of provisions allowing for anonymity of cryptocurrency payments – even if those payments are minute and involve transfers to private or self-hosted wallets.

AML checks even for small transfers

Per CoinDesk, EU legislators will be adding crypto transactions to the category of transactions that need to comply with anti-money laundering (AML) requirements.

The move to de-anonymise even small transfers follow what regulators across Europe have said is the capacity for bad actors to break illegal transactions into several smaller ones to evade detection.

Apart from that, the EAC wants to block crypto transfers to and from the EU bloc to countries such as Turkey, Hong Kong and Russia or other tax havens.

In recent weeks, concerns over the use of crypto to evade sanctions have increased since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Many experts in the sector, including financial crimes experts in the US, have said this is highly unlikely for oligarchs. 

On Thursday, Russia said it would accept Bitcoin for its energy resources.