Treasury Drops Crypto Wallet Reporting Plan as CFTC Proposes New Rules
The U.S. Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has withdrawn a proposed rule from December 2020 that would have required banks and money services businesses to report and keep records of cryptocurrency transactions involving self-custodied wallets. The notice, filed with the Federal Register, stated that FinCEN would take no further action on the proposal.
The rule would have mandated reports for transactions exceeding $10,000 involving unhosted or otherwise covered wallets, with record-keeping and customer identity verification for transactions above $3,000. The withdrawal was tied to a broader policy direction outlined in a report by the President's Working Group on Digital Asset Markets, established under Executive Order 14178.
Meanwhile, as Bitcoin (BTC) held above $85,000 on Monday, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) proposed its first crypto market rules. CFTC Chairman Michael Selig announced the proposals in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, aiming to close gaps in crypto market oversight after the Senate failed to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (CLARITY Act) last month.
The proposed rules, Regulation Crypto Asset Transactions (CTX) and Regulation Crypto Asset Markets (CAM), would establish requirements for CFTC-registered exchanges offering crypto assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH) for trading. Unlike the stalled CLARITY Act, the rules would not require crypto assets to trade exclusively on CFTC-registered platforms but would allow registered exchanges to offer retail customers margined and leveraged trading under a single federal regulatory scheme.