(Reuters) -U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday said it was time for lawmakers to force cryptocurrency firms to follow the same money-laundering rules as other financial institutions.
The Democratic senator from Massachusetts spoke during a congressional hearing investigating the collapse of crypto exchange FTX.
“It is time for Congress to make the crypto industry follow the same money laundering rules as everyone else,” Warren said
In a statement earlier on Wednesday she said she and Republican Senator Roger Marshall from Kansas would introduce bipartisan legislation to close crypto money laundering loopholes.
U.S. authorities on Tuesday accused FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried of a series of violations, including money laundering and fraud.
The charges capped a stunning fall from grace for Bankman-Fried, who amassed a fortune valued over $20 billion as he rode a cryptocurrency boom to build FTX into one of the world’s largest exchanges before it abruptly collapsed this year.
Lawmakers are under heightened pressure to better regulate the crypto industry, which critics say is riddled with fraud and abuse.
(Reporting by Chris Prentice and Moira Warburton; Editing by Howard Goller)
