We are pleased to offer the latest episode in Ballard Spahr’s Business Better podcast series, The Business of Cryptocurrency.  In this episode, we discuss the basics of money transmitter and Bank Secrecy Act registration and compliance program requirements. The episode also covers more complex regulatory issues confronting cryptocurrency exchanges, financial institutions, and other businesses — including unhosted digital wallets, identifying counter-parties to transactions under the Travel Rule, and more.

We also discuss potential criminal exposures under the federal money laundering statutes, which is a very timely topic in light of today’s significant announcement by the Department of Justice that two individuals were arrested for an alleged conspiracy to launder cryptocurrency that was stolen during the 2016 hack of Bitfinex, a virtual currency exchange, presently valued at approximately $4.5 billion, and that law enforcement has seized over $3.6 billion in cryptocurrency linked to that hack so far.  We expect to discuss these charges in more detail in a future post.

We hope that you enjoy the podcast, and find it useful.

If you would like to remain updated on these issues, please click here to subscribe to Money Laundering Watch. To learn more about Ballard Spahr’s Anti-Money Laundering Team, please click here.