FinCEN Withdraws Proposed Wallet and Mixing Rules as Bitcoin Falls

Bitcoin (BTC) ended the week lower as U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $729 million in combined net outflows over two sessions, while the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network withdrew proposed rules covering transactions involving unhosted wallets and cryptocurrency mixing.

Bitcoin closed at $82,546.32 on Friday, Oct. 9, down from $84,497.21 on Friday, Oct. 2. The ETF figures measure reported net creations and redemptions and do not establish what caused Bitcoin’s decline.

U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs posted $484.9 million in net outflows Wednesday, Oct. 7, followed by another $244.1 million Thursday, Oct. 8. BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust accounted for $207.7 million of the Oct. 7 outflow.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) made the withdrawal of a proposed rule on transactions involving unhosted and other covered wallets effective Oct. 6. The proposal would have required certain banks and money-service businesses to report transactions above $10,000 and retain records for transactions above $3,000 involving covered wallets.

FinCEN also withdrew a proposed special measure involving international cryptocurrency mixing, along with its related finding that those transactions were a primary money-laundering concern. The proposal would have imposed enhanced reporting and recordkeeping obligations on covered financial institutions handling certain transactions.

In the corporate sector, OKX announced a strategic investment from Circle, Qube Research & Technologies, Ripple and SC Ventures at a $25 billion pre-money valuation. The amount invested and the individual contributions were not disclosed.

The deal builds on OKX’s earlier investment round announced in March with Intercontinental Exchange as lead investor. OKX said the new capital will support expansion and real-world-asset tokenization.

OKX founder and CEO Star Xu said the company wants to build a financial technology platform for the next generation.