Lithuania Focuses On A Stricter Crypto Regulation And Suppress Anonymous Accounts

The nation of Lithuania is planning to tighten its scrutiny over digital assets as it attempts to fight the risks of money laundering and the possible schemes of Russian elites circumventing financial sanctions.

The local ministry of Finance recently announced that several ministries of the Lithuanian government approved legal amendments to anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism in the crypto sphere.

The amendments to the current law, should they later be approved by the Seimas, Lithuania’s legislature would solidify the guidelines for user identification and prohibit anonymous accounts.

The brand new regulation also plans to tighten up demands for exchange operators from January 1, 2023. And they will be required to register a corporate body with nominal capital amounting to an initial limit of 125,000 euros. And the senior management of the entities should be the residents of Lithuania, on a permanent basis.

Furthermore, the announcement also justifies the strict regulations with the accelerating growth of the crypto space and the particular geopolitical risks. It highlighted that more nuanced regulation of the suppliers of crypto-services is also essential given the international regulatory tendencies and the geopolitical situation in the region when a lot of Western countries impose financial and other sanctions on the Russian Federation and Belarus.

According to Gintarė Skaistė, the Minister of Finance, the steps taken on the national level are according to the upcoming pan-European regulations.

Earlier in September last year, Estonia announced its update on the AML act. The updated law banned non-custodial software wallets along with decentralized finance products.

Whereas in April this year, the European Parliament approved an AML regulatory package that could place severe disclosure obligations on transactions among the non-custodial wallets and digital assets exchanges in the European Union.

Despite the fact that the cryptocurrency industry has made a significant position in the world of finance globally, it still continues to witness skepticism and scrutiny from some. To conclude, the crypto space is still emerging and would continue to see regulations, although some can be for the betterment too.

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