The US Senate has passed a national defense bill that also targets cryptocurrency mixers – DeviceFile
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The US Senate has passed a national defense bill that also targets cryptocurrency mixers

An amendment in the bill tightens oversight on institutions

that are engaging in crypto trading.

The United States Senate passed the 2024 National Defense

Authorization Act (NDAA) worth $886

billion on the evening of July 27. The bill includes a provision that targets

crypto mixers, anonymity-enhancing coins and institutions

that are engaging in crypto trading.

The NDAA is a bill that helps authorize how the country’s defense department

can utilize federal funding. Within the bill, a crypto-related amendment was

advanced by a group of senators, including Cynthia Lummis, Elizabeth Warren,

Kirsten Gillibrand and Roger Marshall.

The amendment was created with provisions that were taken

from the Digital Asset Anti-Money

Laundering Act which was introduced back in 2022 and the Responsible Financial Innovation Act

which aims to establish guardrails to prevent another

FTX-style event happening within the industry.

More specifically, the amendment will require establishing

examination standards for crypto.

This would help assess risk and make sure that businesses

are in compliance with related sanctions and money laundering laws.

Apart from this, it compels the Treasury Department to

perform a study aimed at cracking down on

anonymous crypto transactions. This includes the use of

crypto mixers like Tornado Cash, that’s used to make transactions private.

In 2022, the U.S. Treasury Department issued sanctions against the crypto mixer Tornado Cash,

barring residents from using the crypto mixer.

While the mixer was designed for people to

anonymize their crypto transactions, it was often utilized by malicious actors to hide

their ill-gotten crypto from hacks and exploits.

According to the Treasury Department,

the mixer failed to impose controls that disallow money laundering

from bad actors in the space.

Meanwhile, the NDAA also includes an amendment that will require

companies in the U.S. to disclose

their investments in China. U.S. Senator Bob Casey said that this

notification is necessary for the

government to understand how much” is being transferred to their