EU’s New Legislation to Ban Monero, Zcash and Non-KYC Wallets

At the European Anti-Financial Crime Summit 2025 held in Dublin, Eurogroup President and Ireland’s Finance Minister, Paschal Donohoe, announced the EU’s intention to implement strong regulations with the goal of enhancing transparency in cryptocurrency transactions.

The proposed legislation contains several important regulations. Crypto Asset Service Providers (CASPs) will be required to collect and retain detailed information on both the sender and receiver of cryptocurrency transactions, which is more akin to practices in traditional financial systems.

Back in May 2023, the EU passed the Transfer of Funds Regulation, which established a requirement for complete tracking of crypto asset transfers.

As such, starting on July 1, 2027, the EU plans to prohibit transactions involving anonymous wallets and privacy-focused cryptocurrencies such as Monero (XMR) and Zcash (ZEC). This is all under the new Anti-Money Laundering Regulation (AMLR), with the purpose of eliminating avenues for illegal activities facilitated by untraceable digital assets.

This is part of a wider anti-money laundering (AML) framework that covers bank and payment accounts, passbooks, safe deposit boxes, and more.

The new regulations will subject CASPs operating in six or more EU member states to direct AML supervision. It will also allow authorities to impose IP blocks on non-compliant decentralized exchanges, ensuring EU-wide compliance with the new standards.

Patrick Hansen, EU Strategy and Policy Director at Circle clarified that the AMLR is a comprehensive framework applicable to all financial institutions, not exclusively targeting the cryptocurrency sector. A few months ago, he that the regulations are designed to boost transparency and not intended to ban self-custodial wallets.

As one might expect, not everyone was thrilled about these regulations. James Toledano, COO of Unity Wallet, expressed concerns that the new rules might conflict with the foundational principles of decentralized finance (DeFi). Although, he did acknowledge that due to the global nature of cryptocurrencies, users could still find alternative channels to liquidate assets, potentially circumventing the restrictions.

All things considered, the implementation of these regulations is expected to have big implications for the cryptocurrency industry within the EU, maybe even influencing global standards for digital asset transactions.