Cryptocurrency service providers in Ireland will have to comply with money laundering rules and other basic regulations for the first time starting next month.

The Central Bank has warned all companies that exchange or transfer virtual assets like Bitcoin, as well as those that provide financial services to cryptocurrency issuers, that they will now have to complete due diligence on their customers and account for the origin and destination of client assets in line with anti-money laundering rules that apply to other financial services providers.

The change will impose new costs on virtual asset service providers (VASPs) and remove a layer of anonymity from crypto transactions that previously might have been done without the standard checks and balances of normal financial services.