Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) have postponed reintroducing their cryptocurrency anti-money laundering legislation in an effort to secure more cosponsors, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Initially introduced in the Senate during the last session in December, the bill seeks to enforce know-your-customer (KYC) regulations on the crypto industry, including individual miners and validators.
Anticipated revamped bill postponed
Industry participants expected a revised version of the bill to be presented this week, but two insiders said that the senators have delayed the reintroduction as they seek additional cosponsors. The bill’s latest version, which has not been made public, retains the same language opponents initially found problematic.
The legislation mandates the following groups to comply with KYC guidelines: “unhosted wallet providers, digital asset miners, validators, or other nodes that may act to validate or secure third-party transactions, independent network participants, including maximal extractable value searchers, miner extractable value searchers, and other validators or network participants with control over network protocols,” according to the documents.
Addressing growing concerns over crypto crime
In early 2023, Warren announced the bill would be reintroduced amid increasing concerns about hacks and illicit actors abroad. “Roger Marshall and I are reintroducing our anti-money laundering bill to clamp down on crypto crime and give regulators the tools they need to stop the flow of crypto to drug traffickers and places like North Korea,” Warren said during a Senate Banking Committee hearing in February.
Critics of the bill contend that the legislation oversteps its bounds and imposes unattainable expectations on the industry. Earlier this week, the Chamber of Digital Commerce, a crypto advocacy group, stated that the demands placed on the industry are unattainable. The proposed law “aims to eradicate digital asset innovation from the United States at the expense of market security by imposing impractical and unworkable compliance burdens on industry participants,” according to the Chamber of Digital Commerce’s statement.