The Hidden Remittance Tax: 3.5% Withholding on Funds Sent Abroad
Release Date: 06/11/2025
How Regulators Evaluate AI Inside Crypto Compliance Programs
BitAML Podcast
Using AI in Crypto Compliance? Here’s practical guidance for building compliant, explainable, and exam-ready AI-powered AML systems. Artificial intelligence isn’t a fad in financial crime compliance anymore—especially in the crypto world where transaction volumes, velocity, and complexity are exploding. Yet despite all the buzz, a persistent question hangs over compliance teams: what do regulators really expect when you put AI in your program? This isn’t about hype or shiny dashboards. It’s about building AML compliance that passes scrutiny, reduces risk, and earns trust from...
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Will Prediction Markets Survive State-by-State Enforcement?
BitAML Podcast
A Turning Point—Not Just Another Enforcement Action Until now, most of the conversation around prediction markets has lived in a gray, almost theoretical space. Are they even contracts? Are they gambling? All of the above? None of the above? Who regulates them? This week, that debate took a sharp turn into reality. Arizona became the first state to file criminal charges (yes, criminal charges) against a prediction market platform. The state’s Attorney General accused one of the world’s largest prediction markets, Kalshi, of operating an illegal gambling business and accepting bets on...
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Betting on the Future: The Rise of Prediction Markets Part 1
BitAML Podcast
What are the consequences when prediction becomes a product? When a Prediction Turns Into a Payout Just days before U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January 2026, someone quietly placed a large wager on an online prediction market that he would be out of power by the end of the month. When the capture happened, that bet—placed for roughly $30,000—resolved in favor of the trader, paying out more than $400,000 almost instantly. It (most likely) wasn’t just a lucky guess. The trade raised uncomfortable questions about who knew what, and when—and about how...
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2026 Predictions in the Crypto Compliance Sector
BitAML Podcast
The Mechanisms of Crypto Compliance Continue to Evolve Rapidly After a transformative 2025 (marked by the passage of the GENIUS Act), growing state–federal friction, stablecoin frameworks, state-level crypto kiosk legislation, and AI’s emergence in compliance one thing is clear: the crypto industry is entering a new chapter. 2026 won’t be “business as usual.” It will be the year crypto compliance shifts from reactive guardrails to proactive intelligence. The year that transparency becomes a competitive asset. The year that state, federal, and global forces finally start aligning...
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BitAML 2025 Crypto Compliance Wrap-Up
BitAML Podcast
A year defined by clearer rules, stronger partnerships, and a more mature compliance landscape. The Year Crypto Compliance Came Into Its Own If 2024 was the year of debate, 2025 was the year the industry finally began to agree on the shape of things to come. Regulators, policymakers, banks, and crypto innovators found more common ground than ever before. That doesn’t mean the year was simple—far from it—but it was a turning point. Across the U.S., state legislatures built frameworks where federal clarity remained elusive. Stablecoins took center stage as lawmakers and financial...
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The Multi-Billion Dollar Bitcoin Seizure of 61,000 BTC in London
BitAML Podcast
A Record-Breaker, Not Just Another Headline In mid-2025, London’s Metropolitan Police revealed that they had , tied to a massive fraud scheme originating in China. The defendant, Zhimin Qian (aka “Yadi Zhang”), pleaded guilty to charges involving the acquisition and possession of criminal property. By value, that haul is being marketed as the (>$6–7 billion, depending on BTC’s price). But the real story isn’t the dollar signs—it’s what this case reveals about the maturing capabilities of crypto tracing, compliance, and multi-jurisdictional cooperation. Seizures Up ≠...
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How to Start a Career in Crypto AML Compliance
BitAML Podcast
If you’ve ever wondered what it actually takes to jump into crypto compliance—the kind that banks and regulators pay attention to—this post is for you. We’re not talking about meme coins and Discord mods. This is about joining the growing movement to bring safety, legitimacy, and structure to one of the most disruptive financial technologies in a generation. Stephen Sargeant recently posted a must-read on LinkedIn calling for hybrid AML/compliance pros who are curious, coachable, and grounded in real-world systems. That post didn’t just announce a job opening—it outlined what real...
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Stablecoin Rising — From Niche to Financial Mainstay
BitAML Podcast
How this Massive Seachange Went from Niche to Necessity. What Changed? A few years ago, stablecoins were a curiosity—mainly used by traders who wanted a quick way to park value between crypto positions. Fast forward to today, and they’re handling trillions in settlement volume and showing up in the playbooks of companies you know by name. “General growth and rate of growth, transaction volume, reach, mainstreaming… there are definitely household names getting into stablecoins—the Walmarts of the world, Visa and MasterCard, PayPal, Block (Square).” — Joe Ciccolo,...
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California Quietly Passed a Big Win for Crypto Transparency Last Week
BitAML Podcast
California updating its Political Reform Act (1974) to include crypto disclosures for public officials Last Wednesday, Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 1029 into law. It didn’t make big headlines. Crypto Twitter was too busy reacting to presidential polls, stablecoin rumors, and some ETF filings. But this was a major win for transparency, accountability—and crypto legitimacy. If you blinked, you might’ve missed it. But BitAML didn’t. And neither did our Founder & President, Joe Ciccolo, who also serves as Executive Director of the California Blockchain Advocacy Coalition (CBAC)....
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White House Unveils Landmark Crypto Framework—A New Era for Digital Assets Begins
BitAML Podcast
What the July 2025 Crypto Policy Report Means for You The White House’s long-awaited crypto policy report has landed, and while it echoes much of what the industry has been expecting, it marks a pivotal moment. At 163 pages, the July 30 release isn’t just another policy paper—it’s a roa map for how the U.S. intends to regulate, support, and shape the digital asset economy. Stablecoin Oversight Gets Teeth The headline grabber is the GENIUS Act, signed into law July 18, which formalizes the country’s first comprehensive stablecoin framework. Mandates: 1:1 reserve backing, robust...
info_outlineAt the heart of the controversy is a 3.5% excise tax on all cross-border remittance transfers from non-U.S. citizens. That’s right—if you’re on an H-1B visa, a green card, or another non-citizen status, and you send money overseas (to family, to invest, whatever), this bill proposes your provider (e.g., crypto exchange, traditional remittance app) withhold 3.5% of that transfer as tax.
Originally set at 5%, the rate was walked back after pushback from diaspora communities and advocacy groups. Still, 3.5% is significant. It comes on top of existing fees, which means money sent back home could arrive notably lighter.
Crypto platforms that enable cross-border transfers—including exchanges like Coinbase and Kraken—would likely be considered remittance transfer providers under existing definitions. Which brings us to crypto’s conundrum.