Lithuania to Ban Anonymous Wallets Following EU Regulation

Key Takeaways

Lithuania’s Finance Ministry is trying to ban non-custodial crypto wallets.
New regulation additionally imposes strict rules on crypto service suppliers working inside the nation.
The announcement comes after the European Union’s current determination to advance anti-anonymity guidelines within the crypto house.

Lithuania’s Finance Ministry has banned nameless wallets and imposed strict rules on crypto exchanges in an try and fight money-laundering, terrorist financing, and sanctions evasion. The ministry acknowledged it had made the transfer in anticipation of future European Union selections.

Lithuania Bans Self-Hosted Wallets

The Lithuanian authorities is trying to move a brand new legislation to tightening crypto rules and outlaw nameless wallets.

In line with the Ministry of Finance, the federal government permitted Wednesday amendments to the “Legislation on the Prevention of Cash Laundering and Terrorist Financing,” aiming to extend the transparency of the cryptocurrency sector whereas guaranteeing its “sustainable additional improvement.” The amendments will should be permitted by the Seimas, Lithuania’s legislature, earlier than it’s handed into legislation.

Amongst different issues, the legislation seeks to ban the creation of “nameless accounts,” tighten know-your-customer (KYC) rules for crypto exchanges, and require managerial workers of Lithuanian-based exchanges to be everlasting residents of Lithuania. The Registrar of Authorized Entities will even make the names of crypto trade operators public.

These measures had been justified by the Finance Ministry as an effort to fight money-laundering, terrorist financing, sanctions evasion from Russia and Belarus, and reputational dangers for Lithuanian market contributors and the Lithuanian state.

Minister of Finance Gintarė Skaistė additionally acknowledged that the federal government was “taking proactive steps to strengthen regulation at nationwide stage in preparation for subsequent selections at [European Union] stage.”

The European Parliament just lately voted to advance anti-anonymity guidelines for the cryptocurrency business, which might make transactions between non-custodial wallets and crypto service suppliers far tougher. The laws has been criticized by many cryptocurrency advocates, together with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong.

The variety of crypto firms has been quickly rising in Lithuania following a tightening of restrictions in its neighboring nation Estonia. Whereas there have been solely 8 crypto firms established in 2020, the Finance Ministry states that greater than 220 new entities have been created since then.

Disclosure: On the time of writing, the writer of this piece owned ETH and a number of other different cryptocurrencies.

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