New Draft EU Anti-Money Laundering Bill Shows Self-Hosted Wallets Won't Be Banned

According to The Block, the current text of the draft EU anti-money laundering regulation bill may ban privacy-enhancing crypto assets and “anonymization tools,” including privacy wallets or cryptocurrency mixers. Additionally, the document clarifies that in most cases, these restrictions do not apply to self-hosted wallets. In terms of transaction restriction rules, the latest version of the European Parliament’s review of the Anti-Money Laundering Act resulted in the document changing “self-hosted wallets” to “self-hosted addresses.” Tommaso Astazi, head of regulatory affairs at European lobbying group Blockchain, said that with the change, policymakers aim to clarify their goal of preventing non-custodial wallets from existing without linking to identified accounts on crypto service providers such as exchanges. The document also shows that self-hosted wallets still have a transaction limit of 1,000 euros if the owner cannot be identified. MEPs have until March 28 to debate the draft anti-money laundering law document, so changes to the terms are still possible.