Joe Ciccolo - BitAML

Demystifying Regulators: What They Really Want To See From Crypto

Posted on July 22, 2019

The United States and countries around the world regulate commerce and finance in an effort to create safe, fair, and competitive markets. In other words, regulation isn’t new, and it’s not restricted to cryptocurrency. Stocks, commodities, and government currency are each regulated by specific government agencies and departments in the U.S. What makes cryptocurrency regulations […]

Crypto Classifieds Scams: How To Spot A Craigslist Scam

Posted on July 15, 2019

Cryptocurrency theft has been on the rise for years with crypto scams climbing to $1.2 billion in the first quarter of 2019 according to data from CipherTrace. A growing number of those scams are happening on classifieds websites like Craigslist and involve a wide variety of fake merchandise being sold in exchange for cryptocurrency. In […]

Records Retention For Cryptocurrency MSBs: Here Are The Documents You Need To Keep

Posted on July 8, 2019 (April 8, 2021)

Records retention – it may not be the most exciting topic, but it’s definitely one of the most important for cryptocurrency businesses. Why? Because every crypto MSB/money transmitter is required to keep specific documents for certain periods of time in order to stay in compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and anti-money laundering (AML) […]

How Crypto Businesses Can Build A Culture Of Compliance (And, Importantly, Why They Should)

Posted on July 2, 2019 (May 21, 2021)

Any financial institution, including a cyptocurrency money services business (MSB) money transmitter, with a poor culture of compliance is likely to have problems with its BSA/AML compliance program. Don’t just take our word for it. That conclusion comes directly from FinCEN’s 2014 advisory (FIN-2014-A007), which said, “The culture of an organization is critical to its […]

What cryptos need to know about the BSA’s ‘Fifth Pillar’

Posted on June 25, 2019 (August 27, 2021)

The BSA’s so-called ‘fifth pillar’ has created a lot of confusion over how it applies to crypto, if at all. This post explains what it means for crypto businesses. Most crypto businesses are considered money services businesses (MSBs) money transmitters, meaning they are required to comply with the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) by developing a […]

Cryptocurrency Romance Scams Are Becoming A Serious Problem. Here’s What You Can Do

Posted on June 17, 2019 (April 19, 2021)

It’s an unfortunate reality that the cryptocurrency space has its fair share of scams, including romance scams. According to data from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Americans lost $201 million to romance scams in 2019. That’s up from $143 million in 2018 (representing a 40% increase), $88 million in 2017, and $33 million in 2015. Most […]

Investing In Crypto: Here Are 5 Tips To Be A Successful Investor

Posted on June 10, 2019

Interested in investing in crypto but feeling overwhelmed with no idea where to start? You’re not alone. Investing in crypto can seem scary with so many stories about people being scammed making the rounds on news outlets and social media. Like many industries, there are bad actors in the crypto space. On top of that, […]

Elder Financial Exploitation: What Crypto MSBs Need To Know

Posted on June 3, 2019

If you know someone over the age of 60, then they are unfortunately at risk for something called elder financial exploitation (EFE). EFE is a major societal problem, and unfortunately, a growing trend in the crypto space that has implications for AML compliance and reporting processes of crypto businesses. First, what is EFE? FinCEN and […]

Crypto Crime for Law Enforcement Officials: What Do You Need To Know About Compliance?

Posted on May 27, 2019

In 2018, approximately $1.7 billion worth of cryptocurrency was stolen and/or scammed according to a report from CipherTrace, and $1 billion of it was taken from exchanges. The reality is that crypto crime is on the rise with 3.6 times more coins stolen in 2018 than in 2017. But that’s not all. In addition to […]

Author: Joe Ciccolo

Posts by Joe Ciccolo