EU’s AMLD5 Imposes New Requirements on Crypto Firms

by Marvin Dumont

Cryptocurrency exchanges and companies are increasingly bearing the higher costs and burdens of regulation. On Jan. 17, most of the European Union’s 28-member countries are expected to adopt the Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive or AMLD5.

AMLD5 requires exchanges and custodial service providers to register with local regulators, as well as demonstrate compliance with know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering processes.

Moreover, ALD5 gives greater power to EU law enforcement. The new rules are expected to force some firms to relocate outside of Europe to less-regulated havens. These jurisdictions presumably allow exchanges and blockchain companies to operate in a much simpler and less costly legal environment.

The crypto market opened on Monday with a market cap of $216.5 billion, up 13.7% year-to-date.

Apollo (APL) all-in-one currency combines nearly all features of mainstream cryptocurrencies into the fastest blockchain in the world. Boasting features and advancements such as the first implementation of database sharding, as well as adaptive forging, atomic swaps, two-second blocks, encrypted messaging, decentralized marketplace, decentralized exchange, decentralized applications, and decentralized file storage, Apollo stands as the most feature-rich cryptocurrency on the market. And one of the most advanced.