“Cracking down on illicit finance in the crypto asset industry is essential for weeding out bad actors and ensuring crypto assets are not used to evade sanctions and fund terrorism,” said Senator Lummis. “ I’m thrilled that our bipartisan amendment to combat illicit finance passed the Senate today, and I applaud Senators Gillibrand, Warren and Marshall for their work to ensure this amendment was included in the final version of the NDAA.”

“The most urgent problem in crypto today is its illicit use by rogue nations, ransomware gangs, drug traffickers, and cybercriminals,” said Senator Warren. “We need to make it more difficult for bad actors to exploit loopholes in the system and this amendment is a good first step to ensure that the crypto industry follows the same rules that everyone else follows.”

1. Requires the Secretary of the Treasury to establish examination standards for crypto assets. These examination standards would give examiners more guidance in how to assess the real risks of crypto assets and helps ensure compliance with money laundering and sanctions laws and provides needed legal clarity to crypto exchanges about their regulatory expectations.
2. Requires the Treasury Department to conduct a study on combating anonymous crypto asset transactions like asset mixers and tumblers, including providing date of their use, level of their use, legislative and regulatory approaches employed by other jurisdictions, and recommendations for legislation or regulation related to these technologies.