Combatting criminal misuse of cryptocurrencies was at the core of the fatf agenda under the US Presidency, culminating in June 2019 with the thorough extension of international standards against money laundering over virtual assets’ markets. This echoed the first legislative measure regulating virtual currencies adopted by the EU a year before. Directive 2018/843, better known as the 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive, fails however to address key technological breakthroughs and new business models, which continuously make the ever-growing and fast-paced crypto economy evolve- [---]