European Union (EU) countries will seek a crackdown on bitcoin during crisis talks tomorrow, in the wake of last week’s Paris attacks, Reuters reports.
A draft document seen by Reuters said that EU member countries were planning to crack down on digital currencies and anonymous payment systems made via pre-paid cards in a bid to curb terrorism financing.
EU justice and interior ministers who will attend the meeting are expected to urge the European Commission to come up with measures to “strengthen controls of non-banking payment methods such as electronic/anonymous payments and virtual currencies and transfers of gold, precious metals, by pre-paid cards,” said the draft conclusion of the meeting seen by Reuters.
Earlier this week, the European Commission said that it was assessing whether bitcoin or any other digital currencies could serve to finance terrorist activity and money laundering as part of a new security report.
The news comes after a report published by the UK government last month deemed that digital currencies posed a “low” risk for both money laundering and terrorism financing.
Paris image via Shutterstock