WASHINGTON — The Trump Administration plans to introduce regulations for cryptocurrencies that are intended to crack down on their use in facilitating money laundering and other illicit activities, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.
Mnuchin told lawmakers the regulations were being developed with other agencies and financial regulators to improve transparency surrounding digital currencies like Bitcoin. The administration has expressed growing concern over the use of such currencies to anonymously execute illegal transactions and potentially evade American sanctions on countries such as Iran.
“We are about to roll out some significant new requirements,” Mnuchin said during a hearing before the Senate Finance Committee. “We want to make sure that technology moves forward; on the other hand, we want to make sure cryptocurrencies aren’t used for the equivalent of old Swiss secret number banking.”
Mnuchin did not provide details of what the regulations would entail. He said that they would provide greater transparency so that law enforcement could see where money was going and ensure that it was not being used to aid money laundering, according to the New York Times.