Overview
- Ireland published its first national anti‑money‑laundering strategy on Aug. 14, 2026, setting a coordinated plan to fight money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing through 2030.
- The strategy finishes transposing the EU Transfer of Funds Regulation so regulated crypto firms must follow the FATF 'travel rule' and supply originator and beneficiary data when they handle transfers.
- For transfers involving self‑hosted wallets firms must collect information on both parties and, for amounts above €1,000, take steps to verify whether a customer owns or controls the private address; firms may request more details, suspend, return, or reject transactions with incomplete data.
- Ireland's earlier decision to use a 12‑month MiCA grandfathering window that ended on Dec. 30, 2025 increased pressure for full authorizations and already fed enforcement actions such as the Central Bank of Ireland's €21.5 million fine on Coinbase Europe in November 2025.
- The plan also orders the Gambling Regulatory Authority to set a crypto source‑of‑funds standard by Q2 2027 and operates alongside EU moves that ban anonymous crypto accounts from July 2027 and place cross‑border coordination under the new AMLA in Frankfurt.