Regulators are calling for more authority to impose sanctions on the US Bitcoin industry

The US government wants to expand its authority to monitor and punish malicious actors in the Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrency ecosystem and therefore recommended that Congress adopt new sanctions regulations.

With the voice of the Treasury Department, Joe Biden’s administration is demanding that members of Congress impose secondary sanctions on those who commit crimes Cryptocurrency-related crimes.

Treasury Undersecretary Wally Adeyemo said in comments to the press that the secondary sanctions regime would isolate the US financial system to a previously mentioned cryptocurrency company to violate the law.

“And it will also result in any company that continues to do business with the sanctioned entity being excluded from the financial system of the United States,” Adeyemo said, according to the statement report Bloomberg.

In your view, it is an “important tool” that “expands our powers and resources to pursue illegal actors.” In his opinion, the US government must do “everything in its power” to ensure that bad actors find no refuge in the ecosystem Cryptocurrencies.

Among these bad actors, the US official named terrorist groups such as Hamas, who financed themselves with cryptocurrencies for several monthsalthough he prefers the US dollar to finance his extremist goals.

Message against Bitcoin exchanges

Adeyemo used his comments to target cryptocurrency platforms that he said They are collaborating with bad actors in the ecosystem.

He said there are platforms and operators that promote assets and services that “help criminals, terrorists and rogue states.” Also that they “close their eyes to the law”.

However, he issued a warning. He claims that these promoters “They will be found by the U.S. government.”. And we will hold them accountable.”

Adeyemo’s comments come days after the US government reached an agreement with Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the market, and its founder Changpeng Zhao.

The agreement included Zhao’s complete resignation from Binance and the payment of a personal fine of $50 million for violations of money laundering regulations.

The crypto asset company, in turn, was fined $4.3 billion for the same reasons. This is the highest monetary sanction ever imposed by the United States. against a crypto asset company.

Although it wasn’t the only one. The year 2023 was marked by the sanctions, fines and investigations launched by the US authorities against various cryptocurrency companies. Coinbase, Bittrex, Kraken and others confirm this.

According to Adeyemo Binance allows, “for several years”, that perpetrators of child sexual abuse, illegal drug trafficking and terrorism would use the platform. “In more than 100,000 transactions (…) extremist groups such as Hamas, Al-Qaeda and ISIS have carried out these transactions,” he complained.

The deputy finance minister said the ministry had sent Congress a series of “common sense recommendations” aimed at this expand the authority of the government agencyand its tools and resources “to pursue illicit actors in the digital assets space.”

The US Congress has not yet notified the receipt of such recommendations from the Treasury Department. In any case, they would end up on the waiting list, where several projects are already active that want to give the Bitcoin ecosystem a legal framework in this country. and that they have failed to move beyond the debates.