The EU is destroying its own economy with its own law: Restrictions on self-custody

The new guidelines for the end of 2024:

The new EBA guidelines for crypto-asset service providers (CASPs), in conjunction with the recent anti-money laundering decisions of the EU Council and Parliament, pose significant challenges for CASPs. These regulations require CASPs to intensify their risk management processes in order to meet the increased requirements for anti-money laundering and the prevention of terrorist financing. The EBA guidelines emphasize the need for a comprehensive review and possible redesign of customer due diligence (CDD) processes, the introduction of advanced transaction monitoring systems and the increased consideration of risk factors specifically relevant to crypto-assets. The EBA identifies the following as specific risk factors, among others:

• Transactions, such as transfers to or from self-hosted addresses, decentralized platforms or transfers involving crypto-asset providers that are not authorized or regulated under the Regulation;
• products, such as those that increase anonymity or enable transfers to and from CASP and self-hosted and decentralized trading platforms
• the nature of the clients and their behavior, including instances where they provide inconsistent or false information or where their transaction volumes or patterns are not in line with what is expected of this type of client
• the clients' or beneficial owners' links to high-risk countries or transactions to/from countries associated with a high risk of money laundering and terrorist financing.

The recent decisions of the EU Council and Parliament also extend the list of obliged entities and introduce specific due diligence measures for transactions worth EUR 1,000 or more.

The directives thus place a particular emphasis on the identification of clients and the verification of their activities. CASPs must consider the type of customers, the type of products offered, the delivery channels and geographical aspects when monitoring business relationships and transactions. This is also likely to require the introduction of new technologies and analytics to effectively identify and report suspicious activity.

In addition, CASPs must be able to track and understand the origin and destination of crypto-asset transactions to minimize the risk of money laundering and terrorist financing. However, this will also mean that crypto service providers will need to enhance and update their monitoring and reporting systems to ensure compliance.

The combined effect of these regulations will require a significant expansion of monitoring and reporting obligations for CASPs, potentially leading to higher operational costs and posing challenges for smaller players in particular. This will require careful consideration of the benefits of increased safety and integrity against the potential negative impact on innovation and competitiveness.

The EU will probably not participate in the latest innovations with this law.