The Blubber

The EU enacts a ban on anonymous crypto transactions via self-custody wallets, per Cointelegraph.

The majority of the European Parliament's lead committees have endorsed a prohibition on cryptocurrency transactions of any value conducted through hosted crypto wallets. This decision follows the European Council and Parliament's provisional agreement to expand certain aspects of the European Union's Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter-Terrorist Financing laws to encompass the cryptocurrency market.

As per a post by Patrick Breyer, a member of the European Parliament representing the Piratenpartei Deutschland (Pirate Party of Germany), the new AML laws were approved by a "majority of the EU Parliament's lead committees" on March 19.

Breyer and Gunnar Beck of Alternative für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany) were the only two members who voted against the ban on anonymous crypto payments. The ban specifically targets hosted or custodial crypto wallets provided by third-party service providers, such as centralized exchanges.

The updated AML legislation imposes certain restrictions on cash transactions and anonymous cryptocurrency payments. It prohibits anonymous cash payments exceeding 3,000 euros in commercial transactions, and completely bans cash payments over 10,000 euros in business transactions.

The legislation is expected to be fully implemented within three years of its enactment. However, Dillon Eustace, an Ireland-based law firm, anticipates an earlier full implementation of the legislation.

Many cryptocurrency networks operate in permissionless environments, enabling individuals to generate a cryptographic private key and gain unrestricted, anonymous access to the system — a foundational aspect of cryptocurrencies.