The new German government has cited crypto in its coalition agreement, advocating for an equal playing field between traditional finance and “innovative business models.” Three German political parties agreed to a coalition deal this week that will see left-leaning Social Democrats (SDP), the Green Party and the right-friendly Free Democrats (FDP) take the reins from December this year. According to a rough translation of the 177-page agreement published on Nov 24, the coalition calls for a new “dynamic in relation to the opportunities and risks from new financial innovations” such as crypto assets and blockchain businesses: “We are making European …

Hot on the heels of the rising cryptocurrency hype, Finnish regulators have dropped a formal notice. On Nov. 24th, the Financial Supervisory Authority (FIN-FSA) stated: “Only registered virtual currency providers can market virtual currencies and related services in Finland. The marketing of virtual currencies in Finnish and in Finland is only allowed for entities registered as virtual currency providers in Finland.” Finland is a highly economically free country, ranking 17th in the Index for Economic Freedom. However, as LocalBitcoins CEO Sebastian Sonntag told Cointelegraph upon receiving their FSA license in 2019: “The controls in the financial sector are of particularly …

Swedish financial watchdog’s call for a European Union-wide ban on proof-of-work (PoW) crypto mining, mainly known as the method of minting new Bitcoin (BTC), has received backlash from crypto-related fund managers. Melanion Capital, a Paris-based alternative investment firm known for its Bitcoin ETF, addressed the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority and Swedish Environmental Protection Agency’s call to ban PoW mining across Europe. “The claim that Bitcoin miners jeopardize the electricity network is completely misinformed,” noted Melanion, reminding that Bitcoin miners’ business model is prone to collapse when the electricity demand increases as it would also increase energy prices. The statement points …

The word “stablecoin” may have a pleasant ring to it — isn’t it nice to have something stable in the volatile cryptoverse? — but for critics, they are nothing short of a ticking time bomb. Whether that’s true or not, the push for regulating stablecoins is gaining momentum. The United States and the European Union are getting closer to formalizing their playbooks, and given the history of financial regulation emanating from Washington and Brussels, as well as the Financial Action Task Force’s guidelines on crypto over the past few years, it’s safe to say that the rest of the world …

The European Central Bank (ECB) has announced the formation of a Market Advisory Group for the purpose of exploring the infrastructural and circulation potential of the digital euro from the perspective of industry spearheads. The group also aims to uncover the digital euros optimal function within the pan-European currency's vast payments ecosystem. The group includes a number of well-established experts from the banking and financial sector, including Aleksander Kurtevski, managing director of Bankart, Antonio Macías Vecino, head of payments discipline at BBVA and Axel Schaefer, payment regulation and innovation specialist at Ingka Group (Ikea), among others. It is expected that …

Cryptocurrency platform Voyager Digital has been granted an official licensing approval from French regulatory bodies Autorité des marchés financiers and the Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution to facilitate a trading platform of 60 digital assets in the French and European Union markets under the subsidiary LGO Europe SAS. Voyager, a United States-based, Canadian-listed company under ticker symbol VYGR.V, is reportedly the first organization outside of Europe to be designated a “Fit and Proper” approval status of this kind. In early August, Voyager penned an agreement with crypto payments firm Coinify at an estimated value of $85 million with …

The region of central, northern and western Europe, or CNWE, has emerged as the world’s most active cryptocurrency block, receiving over $1 trillion worth of digital assets over the past year, according to new research from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis. The report, which was released Tuesday, found that the CNWE region accounted for 25% of global crypto activity between July 2020 and June 2021. The region witnessed a sharp uptick in transaction volume across all crypto sub-categories, especially decentralized finance, or DeFi. Chainalysis describes crypto transactions as anything involving trade, investments and business dealings. Europe has also become a hotbed …

Governments are tasked with bringing fair and efficient services to the public. Unfortunately, providing transparency and accountability often results in a reduction in efficiency and effectiveness or vice versa. Governments are usually forced to choose to improve one at the cost of the other. On rare occasions, technology comes along that enables governments to improve fairness and efficiency. The move from paper-based record keeping to computer databases was one such technology. The internet was another. Blockchain is the next. Like the internet before it, blockchain will not only improve how the public interacts with government services, it will have broad …

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published its report on trends, risks and vulnerabilities in the European Union markets during the first half of 2021 (1H21). Its takeaways included the argument that crypto markets’ extraordinary volatility and growth make a compelling case for the need for a targeted regulatory regime, as sketched out in the European Commission’s proposed Markets in Crypto-Assets regulations. Much has been riding on the EU and global market’s recovery during 1H21 amid the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. ESMA’s report notes that the economic outlook has continued to improve overall, with the European …

The European Union is reportedly looking to bolster technological development in the region with a planned $177 billion investment war chest. According to Bloomberg, EU officials plan to fund direct investments in areas like blockchain, data infrastructure, 5G, and quantum computing, among others. The planned $177 billion investment fund is about 20% of the 750 billion euros ($887 billion) stimulus package agreed upon by EU leaders back in July 2020 to kickstart economic recovery amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking on Wednesday, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, stressed the importance of investing in digital technology for …

Too much is happening in the realm of crypto policy and regulation to leave the biggest developments of each week without a roundup and at least some conceptual reflection. Starting today, we are getting back to decoding crypto law and everything around it that is worth decoding. Who’s next to follow El Salvador? Eyeballs galore will be pinned to the great Salvadoran experiment from now on. People with PhDs in economics and applied statistics within central banks and research institutes will chase every accessible data point that could be remotely helpful in making sense of the effects of Bitcoin’s adoption …

As if he didn’t have enough to do, Gary Gensler appeared before the European Parliament on Sept. 1 to share his policy recommendations regarding the regulation of crypto assets and other matters. While the United States Securities and Exchange Commission Chair made clear that he was presenting his own views — not those of the Commission — his (virtual) appearance necessarily raised questions. Does Gensler, regarded by some as America’s most crypto-savvy regulator, believe that cryptocurrency and blockchain policy has to be harmonized globally? If so, can he make common cause with the Europeans — or do the U.S. and …