FinCEN and the Federal Reserve withdrew a 2020 plan to cut the cross-border transfer recordkeeping threshold from $3,000 to $250, effective Monday, 9 November. The notice is in the Federal Register as document 2026-22809, at 91 FR 70824. It pulls the joint proposal published on 27 October 2020 at 85 FR 68005. The agencies said they will not issue a final rule on that text. Banks and crypto firms keep the existing $3,000 line unless a new proposal is published and takes effect.
What the 2020 draft would have done
The Bank Secrecy Act rules require financial institutions to collect and keep information on certain funds transfers, and to pass that information along the payment chain. That second duty is widely called the travel rule. The 2020 notice would have lowered the threshold from $3,000 to $250 only for transfers that begin or end outside the United States. It would also have said that "money," in these rules, covers convertible virtual currency and digital assets that have legal tender status. Domestic and cross-border crypto transfers would have sat inside the recordkeeping and travel rules on the same terms as cash wires. The withdrawal means that clarification is not becoming law through this proposal.
Why the agencies stopped
The Register gives two reasons. More than five years have passed, and the agencies said they want another round of public comment before any similar change to the recordkeeping rule or the travel rule. They also said crypto markets have matured and that new legal frameworks are in place, so a future amendment should be written against those facts rather than against the 2020 draft. The notice is explicit that no final rule will come from the old text without a fresh chance to comment. It does not set a date for a replacement proposal, and it does not change the $3,000 threshold that is already on the books.
This is not the MEXC order
Monday's withdrawal is easy to mix up with a different FinCEN action from the day before. On 8 November the bureau ordered US banks to stop transfers with the exchange MEXC, citing illicit flows, in Sunday's regulation note. That order still stands. It targets one firm. The Register notice targets a draft rule that never became final. A third item from Monday sits beside both: the OCC granted Coinbase a full national trust charter, in today's charter note. Bitcoin's move toward $74,000 is in the markets briefing. Follow the rulebook on the regulation desk.