Current Challenges and Possible Solutions for Anti-Money Laundering Regulation of Virtual Currencies in the EU and the UK

Cryptocurrency, a kind of a decentralised virtual currency intended to be used as a means of payment has appeared and gained momentum in recent years. It has been widely used as a speculative tool, but also for money laundering, terrorism financing
and in the black market economy.

With the lack of any universal supervising authority, regulatory efforts to combat money laundering with cryptocurrency have been slow and inconsistent across jurisdictions. In the EU, it took almost ten years for it to be brought within the scope of the AML legislation. As yet untested, it is manifest that this legislation does not comprehensively address all the AML issues that cryptocurrencies create.

This dissertation provides an analysis of the AML challenges posed by cryptocurrencies, the regulatory responses to these challenges in the EU and the UK, and offers potential solutions, primarily a suggestion to incentivise AML-compliant
cryptoassets through regulation.