According to CipherTrace’s Spring 2020 Cryptocurrency Anti-Money Laundering and Crime Report, criminals netted just under USD 1.4 Billion from various crypto-related thefts, hacks, and frauds in the first five months of 2020. Key data on crypto crimes and trends from the report will have regulatory repercussions for VASPs (Virtual Asset Service Providers) and other financial institutions.
Revealing that 74% of bitcoin payments between exchanges are cross border, the report has underscored the urgency for global AML (Anti-Money Laundering) standards. The abundance of cross-border transactions highlights the need for exchanges to adopt appropriate cross-border controls to ensure AML and CTF (Counter-Terrorism Financing) compliance.
US Regulator FinCEN’s Director Kenneth Blanco has warned that criminals are “working to undermine KYC (Know-Your-Customer) processes in the remote environment. Virtual currency businesses should remain vigilant against attacks targeting their onboarding and authentication processes.”
In the wake of the global Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Travel Rule regulations on virtual currencies, where all crypto transactions above a certain amount must be accompanied by identifying information.
Protecting the Interests of All Stakeholders
Speaking with blockchain service provider ChainUP’s CEO and founder, Zhong Gengfa, he believed that in the long run, “tightening measures are good for the industry. Regulations are absolutely necessary to protect the interests of all stakeholders in this space. As digital tokens gain mainstream momentum and adoption, this is how we gain market confidence.”
Headquartered in Singapore with offices in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Tokyo, ChainUP has released compliance solutions in both Japan and Singapore for crypto exchanges.
In a collaborative partnership with Bplus and BitSG Labs, ChainUP launched the first legally compliant crypto exchange solution in Singapore that met with the city-state’s Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) requirements.
By targeting compliance requirements, ChainUp has been able to customize development systems on exchanges to ensure they conform to the various AML (Anti-Money Laundering) and KYC (Know Your Customer) standards, including fund storage and withdrawals, amongst other requirements.
While compliance, especially license applications, can be both costly and challenging, the blockchain tech provider hopes to be the “one-stop-shop” for compliance service solutions, where cost reduction and efficient compliance processing can be achieved.
Established in the blockchain industry as a white-label crypto exchange solutions provider, ChainUP has been servicing over three hundred exchanges. Offering spot trading and/or derivative trading systems, ChainUP also provides liquidity and wallet solutions. Notably, ChainUP has a set of security risk control systems that can provide 100% coverage, conducting all-round risk management of the system, backed by more than 30 security technology guarantees.
2020 is already set to be the second-highest in cryptocurrency theft, hacking, and fraud, according to the numbers cranked out by the CipherTrace report (see graph below).
Speaking about the recent Twitter hack which involved a bitcoin scamming attempt, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) exhorted the entire crypto industry to be vigilant. While “not a lot of money” was lost at the recent attempt, he pointed out that the hack was actually “a good wakeup call for the whole industry to be more vigilant when it [came] to security.”
