Loading...G20 summit ended in consensus that crypto regulation in the world must be unified and related entrepreneurial activities face taxes. But what’s not the least important the overall “spirit” of crypto regulation. This “spirit” was derived from Financial Action Task Force (FATF). When one speaks about standards of FATF there is no hesitation that they are aimed to countermeasure criminal activities in the financial sphere. And the same time it’s undoubtedly that current rulings of FATF may be influenced by political winds, and these winds blow from the one side – USA.
The rotating chief of FATF now is Marshall Billingsley is the assistant secretary of US Treasury, the famous American administrative body that hosts OFAC, The Office of Foreign Assets Control that is in the head of issuing various sanctions. As it’s well known that OFAC tried to ban the use of two reportedly Iran-connected Bitcoin addresses. This attempt has failed and this has shown that OFAC has faced a big challenge in its efforts to harness crypto sphere. This failure is just remind of the same unsuccessful attempt of Russian government to block Telegram. The power of internet seems sometimes underestimated. Moreover this logic is relevant for cryptocurrencies pretty well citing that they may work without internet at all, just through cell phones or radio waves.
Taking into consideration such facts and political pressure OFAC experiences from Washington political forces it’s undoubtedly that FATF will be using its influence for to be one of the instruments to suppress cryptocurrencies since the free flow of cryptocurrencies poses risk a total disruption of US sanctions regime.
