Interesting news from the USA. The Treasury Department just submitted a report to Congress proposing significant tightening of requirements for DeFi applications. The essence is that decentralized financial protocols will need to comply with AML/CFT standards — combating money laundering and terrorist financing. This is a quite serious step toward regulating the crypto sector.

But that's not all. The report also suggests creating a so-called safe harbor for institutions. The idea is that companies will be able to temporarily freeze suspicious assets during investigations without waiting for a court order. This could speed up the fight against crypto crime.

Why has this whole issue come up in the first place? The data is impressive and at the same time frightening. The FBI recorded losses from crypto scams of about $9 billion just in 2024. This shows that without proper regulation and AML/CFT controls, criminals are quite active in the crypto space.

Overall, it’s clear that American regulators are seriously concerned about financial crimes in the digital asset sphere. The question is no longer whether regulation will happen, but what form it will take and how quickly it will occur. For the crypto community, this means that the era of full decentralization without any rules is coming to an end.