U.S. President Donald Trump signs the Genius Act next to U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty and U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson in Washington on July 18.Nathan Howard/Reuters
Hoopla over America’s new stablecoin law is fuelling fears that Canada is missing out on the latest cryptocurrency boom.
The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act, or the Genius Act, was signed into law by President Donald Trump last week, creating a regulatory framework for stablecoins pegged to the U.S. dollar. (Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies that have values tied to another form of currency or financial asset to maintain steady prices.)
A related bill, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, advanced to the U.S. Senate. The Clarity Act for short, it proposes to divvy up regulatory oversight for virtual assets between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
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At first blush, the U.S. government’s “crypto week” was a resounding success because those two pieces of legislation are helping digital assets go mainstream south of the border.
But anti-corruption groups, including Transparency International U.S., are warning the Genius Act and the Clarity Act include loopholes for money laundering and sanctions evasion, a forewarning for other countries, including Canada, as they vie for leadership in the US$5.7-billion global digital asset economy.
“To other countries, I would encourage lawmakers to actually take a risk-based approach and take into consideration that we have a global economy,” said Gary Kalman, executive director of Transparency International U.S., in an interview on Thursday.
As Mr. Kalman points out, crypto is not a typical brick-and-mortar business and it carries a higher risk for illicit finance. That’s because it is relatively easy to set up offshore crypto-issuing companies that sell into other countries without having a physical presence in those jurisdictions, he said.
“That is the type of risk analysis we would urge other countries to consider when moving forward with legislation,” he added.
Transparency International U.S., the Free Russia Foundation, the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency Coalition and the Hudson Institute’s Kleptocracy Initiative offer a sobering analysis of America’s signature stablecoin legislation.
“The risks are real and urgent. Iran, North Korea and Russia have turned to cryptocurrency and stablecoins to bypass international sanctions and move illicit funds,” the anti-corruption groups state in a joint letter to top U.S. congressional leaders, including the Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson.
“If the U.S. does not close the loopholes that can be exploited by these actors, the financial architecture advanced in GENIUS and CLARITY will further accelerate the growth of opaque and lawless financial networks.”
Specifically, the groups outlined four key problems with the two pieces of legislation.
The first involves the Genius Act’s differential treatment of stablecoin issuers registered in the United States versus those based in foreign or offshore jurisdictions.
Under the law, foreign stablecoin issuers, such as Tether, the world’s largest stablecoin, are able to participate in U.S. markets via decentralized exchanges and peer-to-peer transfers even if they don’t register, the groups say.
The U.S. Treasury, meanwhile, has the latitude to provide exemptions to foreign issuers, allowing them to participate in centralized exchanges after the expiration of a three-year grace period. As a result, foreign issuers will not receive proper regulatory oversight.
A second problem involves the Genius Act’s failure to impose anti-money-laundering (AML) and anti-terrorist-financing obligations on secondary-market participants, including digital asset exchanges, custodians and brokers.
“The result is a bill that affirms the status quo while ignoring how kleptocrats, terrorists and other criminal actors access and move digital assets,” states the letter.
“Further, GENIUS weakens compliance by stating that issuers must follow AML rules, only ‘as applicable’ – a vague and unenforceable standard.”
A third weakness involves glaring gaps in sanctions enforcement. Notably, the Genius Act does not apply to anonymizing technologies, such as mixers, and other intermediaries that obscure funding sources, the groups say.
The Clarity Act, meanwhile, overlooks sanctions evasion entirely even though digital assets have become a favoured tool of criminals to sidestep economic restrictions.
Lastly, exemptions for decentralized services and platforms under the Genius Act, coupled with the Clarity Act’s failure to require ownership disclosures from all market participants, will frustrate enforcement of those laws, according to the groups.
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Canada, meanwhile, is facing mounting calls to create its own comprehensive national strategy for crypto, including stablecoins.
“Stablecoins are reshaping global finance, but Canada is still on the sidelines,” states a new report by Western University’s Ivey Business School.
“While other countries use them to strengthen payments and attract investment, Canada lacks a homegrown alternative tied to its currency.”
The report rightly urges Canada to create a “unified regulatory framework” for digital assets, noting oversight is currently split among regulators including the Canada Revenue Agency, the Canadian Securities Administrators, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada and provincial agencies.
Creating a national regulatory framework should indeed be a priority because businesses need a consistent set of rules.
But in doing so, the federal government must draw lessons from America’s legislative missteps on financial crime.
Canada is already being marketed abroad as a secrecy jurisdiction that can be readily exploited by kleptocrats, money launderers, sanctions evaders and other crooks.
In the rush to catch up on crypto, Ottawa cannot afford to replicate Washington’s mistakes.