The president of the United States Donald Trump signed a decree on the creation of a task force that will investigate crimes including cryptocurrencies. The document was published on the White House’s website.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
1. Fighting cryptocurrency frauds is an important task for many countries. This was one of the reasons why numerous governments have declared digital money outlawed and are not adopting any rules that would regulate this sphere for any potential work with it.
2. In January, the U.S. authorities have announced the creation of a working group dedicated to cryptocurrencies, led by the Ministry of Finance. Officials said they would cooperate with their partners from the G20 countries, and the main aim of their work was set to fight the use of cryptocurrency in illegal activities.
3. Earlier in June, the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services proposed a bill carrying out a study on how virtual currencies and online marketplaces are used in sex and drugs trafficking.
In the near future, the new working group should provide the president with a report on crimes related to digital money.
The country's authorities and regulators have done a lot so far to fight crypto related crimes. As such, three years ago FBI has launched a virtual-currency initiative and has recently announced that there are 130 open cryptocurrency cases. Earlier in May, U.S. and Canadian state security regulators have also initiated dozens of investigations into the cryptocurrency scams.
Note that all cryptocurrency exchange transactions in the U.S. are taxed, and the country is having strict requirements for foreign crypto exchanges. However, in July, Huobi crypto exchange managed to open its branch in the U.S. Its management stated that it was ready to earn the confidence of local regulators. So the platform has registereditself with the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) as a money services business, and all employees of the American branch were trained for fighting money laundering.