Brussels: Europe and the Arabs
The European Union has increased its measures to ensure it is more difficult for criminals to circumvent anti-money laundering rules via cryptocurrencies. The Council of Ministers of the Union of Finance and Economy adopted today updated rules on information accompanying money transfers by expanding the scope of the rules to include transfers of crypto assets.
  This ensures financial transparency in crypto-asset exchanges and provides the European Union with a robust framework that complies with the most demanding international standards in crypto-asset exchanges, ensuring that they are not used for criminal purposes.
“Today’s decision is bad news for those who have misused crypto assets for their illegal activities, to circumvent EU sanctions or to fund terrorism and war. Doing so would not be possible in Europe without exposure – it is an important step forward in the fight against money laundering.” European statement on Elisabeth Svantesson, Swedish Finance Minister, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the Union
Under the new rules, crypto-asset service providers are obligated to collect and make accessible certain information about the sender and beneficiary of crypto-asset transfers they manage, regardless of the amount of crypto-asset being transacted. This ensures that transfers of crypto assets can be traced in order to be able to better identify and block potentially suspicious transactions.
This regulation is part of a package of legislative proposals to strengthen EU rules to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT), submitted by the Commission on 20 July 2021. The package also includes a proposal to create a new EU anti-money laundering authority.

The Board approved its position on the money transfer proposal on December 1, 2021. Trilateral negotiations began on April 28, 2022, and ended with an interim agreement on June 29. Today's formal adoption is the final step in the legislative process.