This week, the US Department of the Treasury through the Office of Foreign Assets Control issued what they called guidelines on crypto control. And yes, OFAC (the same bureau of the Treasury Department that deals with sanctioning and embargoes to US enemies) has made laws for US citizens and residents inside the United States. (expats and other crypto---don't get too happy---it can affect you, too).
While most of these laws were aimed---with good intentions or not---at rogue governments (as defined by the US gov't) and gangsters and money launderers, it can get you too. These new regulations dealt with sanctions. And for regular people, this means fines. big fines. Oh, and the loss of any crypto you had in the 'illegal' transaction, regardless of whether you did anything wrong.
You may be asking yourself, "yeah, but I trade on mainstream exchanges. I get paid for my business in crypto and pay tax on it. So this can't apply to me!" Unfortunately, it can. Unless you know every person that you do business with online well; unless you are fully sure that they aren't on any US blacklist, even if they use a different name, your transaction is subject to these new rules. Furthermore, any business that is owned by one of these blacklisted people at only 50% is also subject to these rules. Do you know the owners of all the businesses you work for online? What does this mean if you run afoul of these new rules? If you are lucky, the loss of any payment from any blacklisted person or company. It also might mean sanctions, which aren't pretty. And the bottom line for everyone, whether a US Citizen or not, is that the US Government is going to be looking at a lot more crypto transactions.
