The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has proposed amendments to the guidelines for the cryptocurrency industry. According to the проекту, the regulator’s focus includes the DeFi sector and NFTs.
FATF clarified the wording around decentralised exchanges and the mechanisms underpinning the operation of platforms and apps. In the authors’ view, DeFi-related projects are considered virtual asset service providers (VASPs) and should comply with anti-money-laundering rules.
The group also proposed changes to terminology referring to NFTs, in a comment СoinDesk senior partner Siân Jones of XReg Consulting said.
“Some terms that could have been interpreted by interested parties in a way not originally intended by FATF were replaced with wording that more accurately expresses the regulator’s intentions,” Jones noted.
According to CipherTrace, only NFTs that could facilitate money laundering and the financing of terrorism are “virtual assets” in FATF’s sense.
In June 2019, the group decided to oblige Bitcoin exchanges and other VASPs to comply with anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorist financing rules, in line with traditional financial firms.
Later, FATF President Marcus Pleyer said there was a need to adjust the guidance for the crypto industry, as many countries had not fully implemented the standards adopted earlier.
In October 2020, a consortium of leading US cryptocurrency companies presented a plan for its members to comply with FATF requirements.
In late February 2021, the regulator began soliciting feedback for amendments to the regulatory rules.
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