Lawmakers from the Green Party and Socialist representatives also appear to favour including self-managed crypto wallets and decentralised finance under a proposed regulation on money laundering. The bloc provisionally agreed on new laws known as the Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA) that would license crypto companies and impose identity checks on transactions. But the European Commission was keen to leave detailed money-laundering procedures for a wider overhaul that also covers sectors such as banking.
An amendment to those laundering laws seeks to make NFT platforms – anyone who acts as an intermediary for importing, minting, or trading the assets that represent proof of ownership of artworks or collectibles – ‘obliged entities’ under EU money-laundering law, according to the document dated 22 June 2022.
That would mean that the likes of NFT marketplace OpenSea might have to assess the risk of illicit finance flowing through their systems and carry out identity checks on new customers and suspicious transactions, on par with what other entities like banks, real estate agents, art traders, and other crypto providers do.
Further amendments seek to use the law to impose laundering checks on decentralised autonomous organisations and ‘unhosted wallets’ that aren’t managed by any regulated crypto provider. An attempt to do so via MiCA and a parallel set of rules known as the Transfer of Funds regulation was largely abandoned following opposition from EU member governments.
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