The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) announced on Tuesday that stakeholders will have another 60 days to respond. To the now infamous proposal requiring information on crypto transfers from exchanges to self-hosted wallets.
The 60-day is a big improvement on the original 15 days given with the original proposal. Aside from that, it looks as if the terms themselves from the original proposal remain the same. Despite Janet Yellen being confirmed as the new Secretary of Treasury.
There was hope within the cryptocurrency industry that terms on this proposal would change as the administration did. Immediately after Joe Biden was sworn in as President of the United States, he ordered a freeze on all midnight rulemaking from agencies run by appointees, Treasury included.
Original Proposal From This Past December
The announcement of the original proposal came late in December just before Christmas. The 15 day comment period was extremely shortened in order to allow the final ruling to come out before Donald Trump left office. In fact the rumor surrounding the proposal is that the initiative came directly from Trump’s Secretary of Treasury, Steve Mnuchin.
To no one’s surprise, the crypto community was outraged by the proposal. But were able to submit enough commentary and leverage enough political pressure to get the treasury under Mnuchin to extend the comment period. This move basically passed off the proposal to Biden’s treasury led by Yellen.
It will now be a matter of what happens with this next round of comments over the ensuing 60 days. Though optimism for a change isn’t high considering this return to the rule on Yellen’s first day as treasury secretary.
But considering what the crypto community was able to accomplish in 15 days, it is anyone’s guess what could happen with four times that amount to make things happen. But forcing action from this new administration may be easier said than done.
