Published: 20.04.2022
Article reading time:
2 minutes.
The International Monetary Fund has once again expressed concerns about the use of cryptocurrencies by Russians to circumvent sanctions and called on the world community to speed up the regulation of digital assets.
In the Global Financial Stability report, IMF analysts assessed the potential of cryptocurrencies to circumvent sanctions, as well as the possibility of a threat to traditional financial systems. The document emphasizes that there is a “cryptoization” of society against the backdrop of a special operation of Russian troops in Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic. And while analysts admit that this is more related to normal trading activity, cryptocurrencies can still be used to circumvent sanctions and identification procedures.
IMF representatives believe that Russians under sanctions and criminals can use cryptocurrency exchanges that do not comply with the rules of regulators, mixers and other methods to transfer funds. Therefore, it is necessary to accelerate the development of regulation of the cryptocurrency space. It is especially important to make exchanges comply with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Crypto Travel Rule.
The document also focuses on the area of decentralized finance. Analysts noted that this industry needs to be regulated, as well as centralized exchanges. To do this, governments need to develop appropriate regulatory and legal standards, promote the creation of self-regulatory organizations and oversight bodies.
“There is a need to develop a comprehensive, coherent and coordinated approach to the regulation of cryptocurrencies, as well as ways to effectively apply it to financial flow management measures. It is necessary to create international mechanisms of interaction to implement this approach, close data gaps and develop technologies,” the IMF report emphasizes.
Earlier, the FATF announced plans to tighten supervision over compliance with identification procedures (KYC) and anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML) rules in the cryptocurrency industry.
Source: Bits

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