Cryptocurrency exchanges anticipate regulatory tough times ahead of FATF guidelines

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is getting ready to release new guideline that will be used by over 200 nations in combating money laundering and other ill practices. The FATF is a multi-government organization that was put up to bring clarity for the nations that are having it hard when it comes to keeping crypto activities in check including the United States.

The FATF is expected to release the guidelines on June 21 according to the spokeswoman, Alexandra Wijmenga-Daniel. These new rules will be used to oversee the businesses that deal with tokens as well as cryptocurrencies, for example, exchanges, custodians as well as hedge funds.

 According to Eric Turner, the director of research at Messari Inc., a crypto research firm the implementation of the rules could have a lot more impact than the SEC or any other regulatory body until present. According to Turner, these rules are:

“One of the biggest threats to crypto today,” he added via an email to Bloomberg “Their recommendation could have a much larger impact than the SEC or any other regulator has had to date.”

The impending rules will have exchanges like Coinbase to gather customer data especially for those with transactions above $1,000 or 1,000 euros. Moreover, the receiving exchange will be required to collect the details of the recipients of the funds. Such compliance will not only be costly but also technically difficult to implement.

The chief compliance and ethics officer at Seattle-based exchange Bittrex, John Roth said in a comment:

“It’s either going to require a complete and fundamental restructuring of blockchain technology, or it’s going to require a global parallel system to be sort of constructed among the 200 or so exchanges in the world. He added “You can imagine difficulties in trying to build something like that.”