Ireland requires a new crypto law before the EU’s anti-money laundering regulations

Ireland seems to be working urgently on its crypto law to adapt to the European regulation against money laundering and the financing of terrorism. 

Ireland works on its crypto law to adapt to the strict EU anti-money laundering regulations

Jack Chambers, Irish Minister of Finance, stated that an urgent law on crypto will be drafted in Ireland before the EU laws come into effect. 

In practice, after December 30, the EU law “Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing” will come into effect, which strengthens the powers of financial intelligence units, allowing them to suspend transactions. 

Among other things, this European law requires stricter reporting obligations for crypto-exchanges and imposes a limit of 10,000 euros for cash payments.

Not only that, the monitoring of large transactions will also be more rigorous and there may be new reporting obligations for high-value transactions. Other sectors where the strict European law will be implemented include crypto, even in crowdfunding.

By this date, therefore, Ireland must update its law on crypto regulations to adapt to the new European regulatory framework. 

Ireland and the crypto law updated before December 30 

The new crypto law, which will come into effect in Ireland before December 30, aims to ensure that industry businesses are covered by the new EU laws. 

And indeed, Ireland hosts multiple crypto companies. Among others, the crypto-exchange Gemini of the Winklevoss twins, since May 2023 has chosen Ireland as the European headquarters of its platform.

In October 2023, then, even Coinbase established that Ireland was its headquarters for the EU MiCA entity. Here too, therefore, from January 2024, Coinbase will be able to offer its services in a unified regulatory context to 27 countries and a population of 450 million inhabitants.

In reality, Coinbase holds several crypto licenses in European countries, such as Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain, but the choice of Ireland will also be as the official headquarters for the MiCA. 

From these choices by the giants of the crypto sector, it emerges that Ireland has already been selected for its regulation of the sector that favors crypto activities. What is intended to be done now in the country is precisely to continue with its guarantees to protect crypto enterprises, but it will therefore need to update its cryptocurrency law. 

The MiCA Regulation is coming

Ireland is not the only European country studying and analyzing the MiCA, acting to understand how to adapt before its official entry into force. 

In fact, from June to today, there is movement in this direction. Last month, for example, the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) issued a warning about the risks of pump-and-dump schemes in the crypto sector, precisely in view of the MiCA.

Not only that, crypto companies are also dealing with an adaptation to the new incoming regulation. Among others, there is the issuer of the largest stablecoin in the world, Tether (USDT) which is currently not yet recognized by the EU as an e-money issuer. 

In this regard, recently, the CEO of Tether, Paolo Ardoino, announced there will be a solution by November to get legitimized by MiCA. In this way, Tether would avoid the risk of having USDT delisted from crypto platforms for all users in the EU.