- The America COMPETES Act of 2022 initiative could increase the power of the Secretary of the Treasury and give him the ability to ban any or virtually all cryptocurrency transactions.
- Investigators consider this measure to be too dangerous and authoritarian an approach to respond and solve money laundering problems.
Since digital assets began to be the point of attention of millions of people, financial institutions and governments of various countries focused their attention on them, focused on establishing the regulatory measures that they should follow in their respective territories.
One of the countries that has been involved the most is the United States, a nation in which some time has passed since the legislative assembly decided to add a provision that, if it becomes effective, could turn the crypto industry around, through a bill that apparently could not be linked and that was almost to be approved.
Law could ban all crypto transactions
We refer to the preliminary version of the Law America COMPETES Act of 2022, which, among several points, highlights the fact and lto the need of the country, to maintain its economic superiority over China.
What has made more than one digital asset enthusiast nervous, as well as the industry in general, at least in North America, is the fact that This law could increase the power of the Secretary of the Treasury in this area, by giving him the ability to prohibit any or practically all cryptocurrency transactions, This was pointed out by the non-profit organization focused on the policy problems facing virtual currencies, Coin Center.
“Imposing so-called “special measures” prohibitions in the Bank Secrecy Act…would give the Secretary of the Treasury unchecked discretion to prohibit financial institutions (including cryptocurrency exchanges) from offering their customers access to cryptocurrency networks” notes the Coin Center article.
Law would increase power of the Secretary of the Treasury
According to remarks from Executive Director Jerry Brito and Research Director Peter Van Valkenburgh, this bill, as written, It gives the necessary powers to the secretary to be able to prohibit any or all transactions, if he wishes, of virtual assets through financial intermediaries without the need to carry out any process, regulation or limitation as to the time in which the possible prohibition would be exercised.
Currently, the secretary already has the ability to close any account that he considers represents a possible danger due to its links or relations with money laundering, either by a single subject or by an organization located outside the United States. To make this process effective, the law requires the secretary to make certain indications, which includes that the affected party must be notified, in addition to offering him the possibility of defending himself. This prohibition shall not exceed 120 days.
However, the initiative would eliminate said requirements, in addition to empowering the secretary to carry out additional “special measures” that allow him to carry out financial supervision, through the definition of “transmission of funds” in order to adapt to almost any activity linked to potential money laundering.
Violation of user rights?
The researchers consider this measure to be too dangerous and authoritarian an approach, to respond and solve money laundering problems and they feel that there is absolutely no need to increase the scope of the treasury’s authority on this issue.
“This measure gives the Secretary unlimited power to secretly prohibit or condition any transaction at any financial institution in the United States.“, noted Valkenburgh and Brito.
Finally the authors invite people, even if they are not particularly interested in cryptocurrencies, to oppose this initiative as they point out that this is an invasion of basic privacy rights.
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