- Brian Armstrong said that crypto owners are unfairly penalized by the rules.
- Bitcoin is down 5.27 percent at press time.
Bitcoin and the larger cryptocurrency market are again under negative pressure after a solid start to the week. More than $100 billion of investors’ worth has been wiped out by the crypto market’s 5% correction. As a result, Bitcoin is down 5.27 percent at press time and has fallen below $45,000 in value. As of this writing, Bitcoin (BTC) is trading below $45,000.
As the EU Parliament approves new legislation calling for a crackdown on unhosted and non-custodial crypto wallets, the crypto community reacts in agony. Over 90 members of the ECON and LIBE committees voted on Thursday, March 31st, in support of a ban on anonymous crypto transactions.
Detect and Prevent Money Laundering
In conjunction with other initiatives, this is part of a more extensive campaign to tighten rules on cryptocurrency money laundering. To comply with the new legislation, cryptocurrency service providers and exchanges must first get personal information from consumers who use self-hosted wallets to trade more than 1,000 Euros before allowing the transaction.
Legislators claim that the goal of these restrictions is to detect and prevent potentially questionable transactions. In addition, as opposed to depending on third-party organizations, self-hosted wallets allow individuals to keep control of their own private keys.
The European People’s Party (EPP) is a group of EU legislators that has spoken out against these plans, calling them contentious. Proponents of the crypto-currency business have also reacted angrily. According to Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, these regulations are “anti-innovation, privacy and law enforcement.” The CEO went on to say that crypto owners are unfairly penalized by the rules.
