Treasury Department Proposes New Requirements on Cryptocurrency Transactions

Treasury Department Proposes New Requirements on Cryptocurrency Transactions

The Treasury Department unveiled a plan Friday to require some cryptocurrency traders to provide information about their identities, an effort to curb the anonymous transfer of assets by criminals using the new technology.

Coming as the price of bitcoin hovers near records, the proposed regulations seek to deliver on a longstanding goal of U.S. policy makers: to hold entities that transact in cryptocurrencies to the same standards required of traditional financial institutions.

They would target a type of private account that allows the holder of a unique digital key to store cryptocurrencies and transact with others directly—without going through a financial institution. Known as self-hosted or unhosted wallets, the accounts typically take the form of a thumb drive or software on a user's computer or cellphone.

In a notice of proposed rule-making, the Treasury Department said banks and money service businesses—a category that includes popular cryptocurrency-trading platforms such as Coinbase and Gemini—to verify the identities of unhosted wallet holders for any transactions exceeding $3,000.