U.S. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren is teaming up with Republican Senator Roger Marshall to work on a bipartisan bill that will introduce new legislation to close loopholes in the financial system that allow digital assets to be used for money laundering.
In an exclusive statement to CNN, Warren said:
“I’ve been ringing the alarm bell in the Senate on the dangers of these digital asset loopholes, and I’m working in a bipartisan manner to pass common-sense crypto legislation to better safeguard U.S. national security.”
The bill, called the ‘Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act’, would attempt to bring the digital asset ecosystem into compliance with the existing system of anti-money laundering in the worldwide financial system.
The bill would direct the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) within the Treasury Department to designate digital asset wallet providers, miners, validators and others as money service businesses, which would extend responsibilities in the Bank Secrecy Act to the crypto industry.
In a statement, Marshall recalled the government enacting “meaningful reforms” that aided banks in cutting off “bad actors’ from America’s financial system,” following the Sept. 1, 2001 terrorist attacks.
“Applying these similar policies to cryptocurrency exchanges will prevent digital assets from being abused to finance illegal activities without limiting law-abiding American citizens’ access.”