U.S. Treasury Seeks to Name Crypto Mixers as 'Money Laundering Concern'

The U.S. Department of the Treasury's financial crimes arm is proposing to label crypto mixers as a "primary money laundering concern" in its effort to combat illicit crypto finance, highlighting the terrorist groups that have benefited from anonymous crypto funds, including possibly Hamas.

The Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking on Thursday, which will be open to public comment for 90 days.

“Today’s action underscores Treasury’s commitment to combating the exploitation of Convertible Virtual Currency mixing by a broad range of illicit actors, including state-affiliated cyber actors, cyber criminals, and terrorist groups,” said Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo, in a statement that cited the agency's past actions against Tornado Cash and Blender.io.