美国财政部取消对钱包和混币器的加密资产报告规定

The U.S. Treasury Department withdraws proposed reporting rules for cryptocurrency services

The U.S. Treasury Department has withdrawn a proposed regulatory rule. The rule originally required certain cryptocurrency services, including digital wallets and currency mixing tools, to report transaction data to federal regulators. The decision relieved the significant compliance burden hanging on many cryptocurrency companies and users.

Contents of the withdrawn proposal

Previously, the U.S. Treasury Department proposed reporting requirements for crypto wallet providers and mixed-currency service providers. A wallet provider is a company or application that allows users to store and send cryptocurrency. A currency mixer (sometimes called a "stirrer") is a tool that mixes multiple transactions together, designed to mask the trajectory of funds flows on a public blockchain.

Under the proposed rule, these service providers would face an obligation to collect and report user transaction data to regulators, similar to the way banks report certain transfers to regulators. Currently, the U.S. Treasury Department has decided not to advance the proposed requirement.

It should be noted that withdrawing this specific proposal does not mean that other existing legal obligations of cryptocurrency companies disappear. Anti-money laundering regulations, Bank Secrecy Act requirements for existing licensed exchanges, and other federal guidance remain in effect.

Why target wallets and currency mixers

Regulators focus on wallets and money mixers because they can move funds without the identification verification that licensed exchanges must perform. The most basic crypto wallet is similar to a digital bank account that anyone can open without showing an ID. Money mixers further enhance privacy by pooling funds from many users, making it more difficult to trace the origin of any single transfer.

From a regulatory perspective, these tools stand at the boundary between financial privacy and potential abuse. Governments and law enforcement agencies believe that money mixers are particularly likely to be used to launder money or transfer funds related to illegal activities. Privacy advocates counter that most users have legitimate reasons to protect their financial data.

The proposed rules attempt to extend reporting obligations beyond licensed exchanges, touching on self-custody tools and privacy-enhancing services. This scope has sparked controversy across the cryptocurrency industry, touching on the issue of how to regulate cryptocurrency custody tools and infrastructure at the federal level.

Impact on cryptocurrency users and businesses

For users who hold cryptocurrency on a daily basis, the direct practical impact is that wallet applications and mixing-currency services will not face new mandatory data collection rules due to this proposal. If you store Bitcoin or other tokens in a self-managed wallet, the reporting obligations of individual users have not changed as a result of this decision.

For companies building wallet infrastructure, the withdrawal of the proposal reduces a layer of compliance uncertainty. Companies that originally planned to respond to the new rules need to re-evaluate their compliance roadmaps, even though existing obligations under existing laws still apply.

This decision does not mean the end of regulatory review of currency mixers. Separate enforcement actions against specific mixed-currency services have been carried out through other legal channels, and the U.S. Treasury Department has used existing powers to sanction its platforms associated with illegal finance. The withdrawal affects only the proposed reporting rules, not these enforcement tools.

Regulatory uncertainty surrounding privacy tools and self-managed wallets is likely to persist. Future governments or rule-making processes may revisit similar requirements. Currently, cryptocurrency users and businesses have one less pending compliance obligation to consider, but the broader issue of the extent to which reporting rules should extend to decentralized and personally managed cryptocurrency services remains unresolved.