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Ireland raises crypto risk
Ireland released an updated National Risk Assessment on June 17, 2026, jointly published by the Department of Finance and the Department of Justice, assigning digital assets a meaningfully higher risk rating than before for the first time since 2019.
“Bitcoin fell below the $63,000 level due to strong selling pressure, indicating weakening risk appetite in the cryptocurrency market”
The assessment covers money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing, and it rates Ireland’s overall money laundering threat as moderate while crypto-asset providers received an increased money laundering risk rating compared to the 2019 assessment.
The report flags increased misuse of crypto-assets related to both money laundering and terrorist financing, and it pairs the assessment with a new 30-point action plan designed to address the identified vulnerabilities.
The action plan emphasizes improved coordination and intelligence sharing among various agencies, alongside enhanced safeguards for financial systems that interact with digital assets, while the Central Bank of Ireland currently supervises crypto-asset service providers under operational resilience guidelines.
In parallel, the Irish department of finance said crypto assets presented “very significant” risks related to money laundering and terrorism financing as it moves to implement industry standards “relating to the acceptance of crypto-related activities as a source of funds” by the second half of 2027.
Stablecoin rules and dissent
In the United States, the Federal Reserve issued a proposed rulemaking on Thursday that would require U.S. crypto firms to verify stablecoin users and discourage money laundering now that stablecoins have been formally legalized.
The rulemaking, proposed jointly with President Donald Trump’s administration agencies including the Treasury Department and the FDIC, interprets how to implement provisions of the GENIUS Act pertaining to customer identification requirements.
All of the Fed’s governors voted in favor of the proposed rulemaking, with former Fed Chair Jerome Powell among those voting yes, but President Trump’s new Fed Chair, Kevin Warsh, abstained without explanation.
Fed Governor Michael Barr backed the proposal while warning that “the GENIUS Act regulatory framework does not do enough so far to address the risks of illicit finance conducted through secondary market transactions in payment stablecoins.”
The proposed rulemaking would ensure that “digital asset service providers”—defined as any U.S. individual or entity engaged in the business of exchanging, transferring, or custodying crypto—must verify customers’ names, birthdates, and addresses and cross-reference data with lists of terrorists and blacklisted groups provided by the U.S. government, while decentralized protocols are exempt.
Market pressure and liquidations
While Ireland and the Federal Reserve moved on safeguards, the cryptocurrency market saw sharp declines, with Bitcoin falling below the $63,000 level and dropping to $62,644, losing over 5% in value in the last 24 hours.
“Source: Government of Ireland In the time since its last report, Ireland noted that crypto “presents vulnerabilities that may facilitate sanctions evasion,” presented challenges to the country’s tax compliance and enforcement and was used to bribe corrupt officials responsible for decisions overseeing the industry”
Ethereum fell by over 5% to $1,689, BNB dropped 4.90% to $576, XRP lost 5.83% to $1.14, and Solana fell 6.98% to $68.79, as the downturn spread across major tokens.
The article tied the pullback to the hawkish stance adopted by the Fed in its statement following yesterday’s interest rate decision, and it said the selloff triggered large liquidations in the futures market.
In the last 24 hours, the total amount of liquidations reached $599.69 million, including $496.27 million from long positions and $103.42 million from short positions, with $267.62 million worth of positions liquidated in the last 4 hours alone.
Strategy’s preferred stock, STRC, which pays an annual dividend of 11.5 percent, fell to an all-time low of $85.32, and the company stated in its latest 8K filing that its Bitcoin reserves are large enough to cover its annual dividend and interest expenses of $1.7 billion for 32 years.
