Estonian Ministry of Finance: New AML law does not prohibit individuals from holding cryptocurrencies

The Estonian Ministry of Finance has rejected the concerns of crypto / blockchain insiders about the new draft law – claiming that the regulations will not apply to private investors but to companies, industry and there will be no ban on crypto holders.

Estonian Ministry of Finance: New AML law does not prohibit individuals from holding cryptocurrencies

At the end of December, the Estonian government passed a draft law to amend the Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Act, which provides for new regulations for service providers.

Märt Belkin, spokesman for the Estonian Ministry of Finance, said the proposed law specifically targets the VASP and “does not prohibit anyone from owning cryptocurrencies”.

“The bill was passed by the government on December 23rd. The bill will now go to parliament, where it will have to go through three readings to become law. The law is expected to come into full force in the first half of 2022. “said Belkin.

The Estonian coalition government, led by Prime Minister Kaja Kallas of the Liberal Reform Party, benefits from a majority of 59 out of 101 MPs sitting in the Riigikogu, the country’s unicameral parliament, suggesting the law is likely to be passed.

Although it does not prohibit individuals from holding cryptocurrencies, Estonia is still introducing some new regulations

While the bill, designed to ensure that Estonia complies with the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), does not include measures to prohibit customers from owning and trading digital assets such as cryptocurrencies, its terms are based on the assumption that “accounts that are opened with the Estonian VASP are not anonymous and that no anonymous accounts or wallets are made available to the Estonian VASP, ”said a statement by the Ministry of Finance. .

“The new regulation also provides that only companies that operate in Estonia or have connections to Estonia can apply for a license to operate as a VASP.” said the statement.

The department has published a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document that explains some of the new requirements. In order to obtain a VASP license, a company must accumulate equity capital of at least EUR 125,000 (USD 141,000) in order to act as a wallet service, exchange, start initial coin offerings and operate “similar platforms”.

For companies that want to offer “transfer services”, the minimum is 350,000 euros. Previously, the floor was 12,000 euros. The license fee was increased from 3,300 euros to 10,000 euros. In addition, from April 2022, a custodian bank fee of 1% of equity and 0.035% of all transactions will be charged for the virtual asset transfer service, ”the FAQ document says.

Meanwhile, the bill has raised concern among local industry observers. Some, like Estonian Decentralized Finance (DeFi) research programmer Mikko Ohtamaa, said the Estonian authorities plan to effectively ban DeFi in March.

User CZhead disagrees with the tweet that Estonia “doesn’t want to ban DeFi, it will require KYC”. [Know-Your-Customer] to every address that financial institutions interact with, ”this could become the norm for many countries in the years to come.

“Basically it all goes back to the fact that Estonia was the loosest licensing world in 2018-2021 and we now have the most licensed crypto companies per capita in Estonia”, User Sanders the Ape tweeted.

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