The US Treasury Department proposed strict regulations for cryptocurrency exchanges earlier this month to identify owners of digital assets in the US. Crypto exchanges have raised serious concerns regarding the newly proposed regulations as Coinbase termed the Treasury’s decision as a significant intrusion into the privacy of cryptocurrency owners.

The Treasury Department mentioned that crypto exchanges currently operating in the US are required to verify the identity of owners if the transaction exceeds $3,000. The Treasury also asked exchanges to submit the information of the owner of a crypto wallet directly to the Department if a transaction exceeds $10,000.

The crypto community termed the recent action by the SEC as an effort to take full control of the cryptocurrency market. Digital assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum are known for their decentralized nature. Even the SEC’s former head, Jay Clayton recognised Bitcoin and Ethereum as the decentralized payment methods and mentioned that the world’s top two cryptocurrencies are not securities. But, during his last days at the office, Clayton accelerated actions against cryptocurrencies, the most prominent was the lawsuit against Ripple.

Finance Magnates asked the crypto community to share views about the recent action by the US regulatory authorities against cryptocurrency exchanges and its potential impact. Johnny McCamley, Founder of CryptoClear told Finance Magnates that the recent action is a serious intrusion into privacy, but the crypto community must get ready for such intrusions.

“I stand with the crypto exchanges such as Coinbase in the US, against the proposed crypto regulations by the U.S. Department of Treasury – that would require cryptocurrency exchanges like Coinbase to collect, store and share with the government, the names and addresses for anyone that you send crypto to or receive crypto from, for any transaction worth over $3,000. At first glance, this seems crazy (scary almost), as one could argue, this is a substantial intrusion into your privacy and the privacy of others,” McCamley said.

Future of Cryptocurrency Privacy

“We all must get used to it, whether we like it or not. Taking a ‘big picture’ outlook, this is the future of your level of privacy, having little to no privacy, that is. Especially with Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC’s) such as the Digital Dollar coming into play sooner than most realize. Although the initial goal of these CBDC’s is not to replace cash but to compliment cash, I have no doubt the long term goal of CBDC’s is to replace cash. My point being, your money and more importantly where it flows and goes, to family, investing in stocks or crypto assets or wherever your money happens to go, will be tracked and traced down to the cent ($0.01). So, although this is a ‘proposed’ regulation focused on cryptocurrency assets transaction data (being the names and addresses for anyone that you send crypto to or receive crypto from, for any transaction worth over $3,000), not CBDC’s, get used to the government drastically increasing the amount of personal information they hold about you and your money. It is the future,” he added.

Growth in 2021

McCamley mentioned that only the top 1% of crypto assets will post significant gains in 2021 as most of the cryptocurrency assets circulating these days are completely useless.

“I am really excited to be involved in the crypto asset space and watch it grow with my own eyes. It really is exciting times ahead in the crypto-assets space for myself and Members of CryptoClear, a market cap of trillions upon trillions of dollars and a huge increase in the value of the top 1% of crypto assets is coming (as 99% of crypto assets out there are useless as they have no real-life use case). It really is a matter of WHEN not IF this occurs,” the Founder of CryptoClear said.

Crypto Control

Joaquim Matinero Tor, Blockchain Associate at Roca Junyent mentioned that the SEC wants to control everything and the cryptocurrency exchanges must adopt new financial regulations in order to continue the business.

“Crypto exchanges must adapt to ‘new financial regulations’ because of growing interest in cryptos. The SEC wants to control as much as possible as it has been doing for ages with commodities. A new era has begun… but traditional financial entities want to control everything as they have done in the past,” he mentioned.