New EU laws to ban Monero, Zcash and non-Kyc wallets

At the 2025 European Anti-Financial Crimes Summit in Dublin, Pascal Donohoe, president of Eurogroup and Ireland’s finance minister, announced the EU’s intention to implement strong regulations with the aim of increasing transparency in cryptocurrency transactions.

The proposed law includes several important regulations. Crypto Asset Service Providers (CASPS) must collect and maintain detailed information about both senders and recipients of cryptocurrency transactions that resemble traditional financial systems practices.

In May 2023, the EU passed the transfer of funding regulations and established the requirement for full tracking of cryptocurrency transfers.

New EU rules target cryptographic anonymity and delegate data collection

Therefore, starting from July 1, 2027, the EU plans to ban anonymous wallets and transactions that include privacy-focused cryptocurrencies such as Monero (XMR) and ZCASH (ZEC). This is all under the new Money Laundering Regulation (AMLR) and is intended to eliminate the means of illegal activities promoted by invigorating digital assets.

This is part of the wider Money Laundering (AML) framework that covers banks and payment accounts, passing, safety deposit boxes and more.

The new regulations will subjugate CASPs operating in more than six EU member states to direct AML oversight. Authorities can also impose IP blocks on non-compliant decentralized exchanges, ensuring EU-wide compliance with new standards.

The industry offers mixed reactions to the AMLR range

Patrick Hansen, Circle’s EU Strategy and Policy Director, revealed that AMLR is a comprehensive framework that can be applied to all financial institutions, not only targeting the cryptocurrency sector. A few months ago, he specifically emphasized that regulations were designed to increase transparency and were not intended to ban independent wallets.

As you would expect, not everyone is excited about these regulations. James Toledano, COO of Unity Wallet, expressed concern that the new rules could contradict the Fundamental Principles of Decentralized Finance (DEFI). He acknowledged that because of the global nature of cryptocurrencies, users can find alternative channels to settle assets, potentially bypassing restrictions.

With all in mind, the implementation of these regulations is expected to have a major impact on the cryptocurrency industry within the EU, and perhaps even affects global standards for digital asset trading.