Lawmakers within the United Kingdom have handed laws permitting authorities to seize and freeze cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) if used for illicit functions.
According to official information on the U.Ok.’s parliamentary acts web site, the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill is anticipated to obtain royal assent on Oct. 26, that means the bill would full all of the parliamentary phases in each homes of parliament.
Introduced in September 2022, the handed laws goals to broaden authorities’ means to crack down on the usage of cryptocurrency in crimes like cybercrime, scams and drug trafficking.
One of the provisions of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill permits the restoration of crypto property used in crimes with out conviction, as some people could keep away from conviction by remaining distant. The laws additionally goals to fight the usage of digital property “for the purposes of terrorism” or associated causes.
The newest crypto-related authorized growth within the U.Ok. aligns with the federal government’s plans to “robustly” regulate crypto to fight the illicit use of digital assets as a part of its financial crime plan from 2023 to 2026. In March, U.Ok. lawmakers stated they focused to move the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill by the fourth quarter of 2023, as well as to adopting the Financial Action Task Force’s Travel Rule.
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As the U.Ok. authorities has been cracking down on crypto-related crimes, the nation has emerged as a significant cryptocurrency economic system. According to an October 2023 report by blockchain analytics agency Chainalysis, the U.Ok. is the biggest crypto country in terms of raw transaction quantity in Central, Northern and Western Europe.
In February 2023, the crypto tax platform Recap additionally reported that London was the world’s most crypto-ready city for business, coming in forward of Dubai and New York.
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