EU, From 2027 onwards, anonymous cryptocurrency accounts and privacy coins completely banned

The European Union (EU) will introduce new anti-money laundering regulations to fully ban anonymous cryptocurrency accounts and privacy coins starting in 2027. This measure is part of a broad regulatory reform that encompasses not only existing financial institutions but also Cryptocurrency Service Providers (CASP).

According to the anti-money laundering regulation handbook released by the European Crypto Initiative (EUCI), Article 79 of the AMLR (Anti-Money Laundering Regulation) explicitly prohibits financial institutions and CASP from holding or handling anonymous accounts or cryptocurrencies with enhanced anonymity. The regulation includes not only bank accounts, payment accounts, savings accounts, and safes but also cryptocurrency accounts with enhanced anonymity, and coins with built-in privacy features are also regulated.

Byara Sabova, the policy head of the EUCI, stated, “The regulatory framework has already been finalized, and the remaining task is to materialize it through implementing acts and delegated acts that interpret detailed requirements.” These detailed regulations are mainly supervised by the European Banking Authority (EBA), and the EUCI is currently participating in the process of preparing the implementation plan.

This regulation aims to establish a surveillance system across the EU, including a new system for directly supervising CASP of a certain size. The AMLA (European Anti-Money Laundering Authority) plans to select supervised companies starting July 1, 2027, prioritizing a total of 40 institutions, including at least one from each of at least 6 member countries where they operate.

The criteria for selecting supervised entities are relatively strict. For example, only companies with over 20,000 customers residing in one country or an annual transaction amount exceeding 50 million Euros (about 74 billion Won) qualify. Also, a standard that mandates customer due diligence is introduced, requiring customer identity verification procedures for transactions exceeding 1,000 Euros (about 1.1 million Won).

In this way, the European Union is moving towards reducing loopholes related to the anonymity of cryptocurrencies and applying anti-money laundering standards equivalent to those of institutional finance in the cryptocurrency sector. This change is expected to have a significant impact on the overall operation methods of the cryptocurrency market within Europe.