Stablecoin KYC Rules Should Not Cover P2P Transfers, Blockchain Association Warns

The Blockchain Association has urged U.S. regulators to establish a bright line on customer identification requirements for stablecoins that would cover only issuer and customer relationships and not peer-to-peer transfers between customers.

The group submitted comments prior to the Aug. 21 deadline for a joint proposal from FinCEN, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Reserve, the FDIC, and the NCUA, suggesting clearer definitions and flexibility for digital identity technology.

Permitted payment stablecoin issuers would be subject to a written, risk-based customer identification program as a part of AML controls, and generally required to collect a customer’s name, address, date of birth or formation, and identification number before opening a customer’s account, and to verify this information using documentary or non-documentary methods.

The Blockchain Association argued that these requirements would only apply if the issuer has a direct relationship with a customer through issuance, redemption, conversion, repurchase or custody and that a user-to-user transfer should not be covered if the issuer did not intermediate, support or approve the transaction.

The agencies’ proposal largely follows this distinction, although merely holding an issuer’s stablecoin would not itself create an account. Thus, transfers of an issuer’s stablecoin through the issuer’s smart contract would generally be consistent with secondary market activity.