The purpose of this article is to provide a first comment to the new provisions on virtual currencies included in the European Union Directive 2018/843, amending Directive 2015/849 on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing, known as Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive. The Directive requires States to include, among the obliged entities to respect anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing requirements, such as ‘knowyour-customer’, the ‘providers engaged in exchange services between virtual currencies and fiat currencies.’ To the big dilemma: ‘to regulate or not to regulate’ virtual currencies, including Bitcoins, the EU answered that yes, we must regulate. However, what is the meaning of regulating Bitcoins? After presenting what VC are and which challenges they pose to international law, I will argue that regulation is fundamental in order to avoid the exploitation of these currencies for the purposes of money laundering and terrorism financing, but that, at the same time, regulation as it was conceived at EU level might pose numerous challenges because it only concerns the moment in which the ‘real’ world meets the ‘virtual’ one, and is applicable only to the obliged entities that fall under the scope of the EU legal instrument.

All that Glitters is not Gold: The Regulation of Virtual Currencies in the New EU V Anti-Money Laundering Directive

Sara De Vido
2019-01-01

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to provide a first comment to the new provisions on virtual currencies included in the European Union Directive 2018/843, amending Directive 2015/849 on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing, known as Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive. The Directive requires States to include, among the obliged entities to respect anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing requirements, such as ‘knowyour-customer’, the ‘providers engaged in exchange services between virtual currencies and fiat currencies.’ To the big dilemma: ‘to regulate or not to regulate’ virtual currencies, including Bitcoins, the EU answered that yes, we must regulate. However, what is the meaning of regulating Bitcoins? After presenting what VC are and which challenges they pose to international law, I will argue that regulation is fundamental in order to avoid the exploitation of these currencies for the purposes of money laundering and terrorism financing, but that, at the same time, regulation as it was conceived at EU level might pose numerous challenges because it only concerns the moment in which the ‘real’ world meets the ‘virtual’ one, and is applicable only to the obliged entities that fall under the scope of the EU legal instrument.
2019
38
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
DPCE online 2019.pdf

accesso aperto

Descrizione: DPCE De Vido 2019
Tipologia: Documento in Post-print
Licenza: Accesso gratuito (solo visione)
Dimensione 256.28 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
256.28 kB Adobe PDF Visualizza/Apri

I documenti in ARCA sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10278/3713455
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus ND
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact