In September, 29 people were arrested in connection with a network that was sending crypto to Islamists in Syria.
France has announced tough new measures for crypto exchanges that mean transactions will no longer be able to take place anonymously.
Trading platforms operating in the country will have to ramp up Know Your Customer checks for all transactions — including crypto-to-crypto transfers.
Announcing the stricter guidelines, finance minister Bruno Le Maire said that digital assets do present “significant opportunities” for the economy, but warned tougher action is needed to prevent cryptocurrencies from being used for criminal activity.
At the end of September, French detectives dismantled a network that was using cryptocurrencies to fund Islamist extremists in Syria — and 29 people were arrested. It’s believed that hundreds of thousands of euros may have ended up in the hands of al Qaeda and Islamic State members as a result.
Countries around the world are beginning to step up their regulation of cryptocurrencies, with the Financial Action Task Force recently introducing a travel rule that urges exchanges to share user information with each other whenever transactions are made.
Read More on Academy
You can learn more about crypto regulations and how digital assets work on CoinMarketCap Academy — including this article that explores whether cryptocurrencies are anonymous.
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