The French council of ministers has approved a series of new measures to combat the anonymity of cryptocurrency transactions. Anonymous accounts are banned in crypto exchanges that must now enforce stricter know-your-customer requirements. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire says the changes are necessary to fight the financing of terrorism.
France Tightens Crypto Surveillance
The French Council of Ministers approved an ordinance containing a series of measures to tighten surveillance of cryptocurrency activities last week. The ordinance, which will take effect in six months, was introduced by French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, along with ministers Sébastien Lecornu and Olivier Dussopt.
La Maire tweeted on Wednesday: “We have to wipe out all terrorist financing circuits for the smallest euro… we issued an order to the Council of Ministers this morning making it possible to strengthen the fight against transaction anonymity crypto-assets. ” According to the press release issued by the three ministers:
This ordinance strengthens the fight against the anonymity of transactions in digital assets by involving digital asset service providers … among the entities with the prohibition on anonymous accounting.
The ordinance’s measures will be set out in upcoming decrees to be released this week, according to local media. All French cryptocurrency exchanges will be required to equip themselves with a more rigorous customer-customer identification (KYC) system.
Crypto exchanges will have to ask their customers two proofs of first euro spent, instead of the previous minimum limit of 1,000 euros. The ID requirements will be a SEPA transfer along with an identification document. In addition, all exchanges, including those that do not offer fiat trading pairs, will need to register with an administrative body, likely funders Autorité des marchés (AMF), France’s financial markets regulator.
However, the new requirements raise concerns that non-European customers will be unable to register on French cryptocurrency exchanges because they do not have a European bank account, thus depriving French start-ups of participating in the global crypto market wide.
“We are aware that this strengthened identification is penalizing companies,” a ministerial source quoted as saying by Capital publication. He added “The decree will therefore come into effect in the spring” so companies have several months to comply.
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