Europe’s Anti-Money Laundering and Combatting the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) watchdog, MONEYVAL, has listed monitoring the crypto sector along with “gatekeeper” professionals, such as lawyers and accountants, as priorities in European nations' push to combat money laundering. In a media release based on the findings of its annual report, MONEYVAL called upon European jurisdictions to assess compliance with international standards and implement stricter regulatory policies to combat money laundering facilitated by crypto assets. Elżbieta Frankow-Jaśkiewicz, chief of MONEVYAL, cited the Pandora Papers as an example of how professionals serving as "gatekeepers" could aid the rich and corrupt to launder their …

Next to the fears of government overreach that the European Union’s ambitious digital euro project stirred, the main concern of the public is the prospective currency’s privacy framework. It appears that this worry might not be overblown after all, as the European Central Bank’s (ECB) latest presentation hints that user anonymity is not a desirable design option. On Tuesday, crypto venture adviser and European digital asset regulation whistleblower Patrick Hansen drew public attention to the ECB’s presentation titled “Digital Euro Privacy options.” The document is relatively short and contains nine slides that lay out the possible options for user privacy …

Analysts from the European Commission showed an unexpected understanding of how decentralized finance (DeFi) actually functions, having defined it as something different from the traditional financial system and acknowledging that it would require rethinking the approach to regulation. On Monday, May 2, crypto venture advisor at Presight Capital and a long-term expert on European regulation Patrick Hansen shared some important details from the EU Commission's “European Financial Stability and Integration Review 2022.” T report, dated April 7, contains a 12-page chapter on DeFi, in which the authors demonstrate a sensible approach to the topic. 1/ In case you missed it, …

Mairead McGuinness, the commissioner for financial services, financial stability and capital markets union at the European Commission, is calling for global regulators to work together to address potential risks in the crypto market. In a Sunday opinion piece in political media outlet The Hill, McGuinness said the European Union and the United States could help lead the world in a regulatory approach for cryptocurrencies that considers the benefits of the innovative technology while addressing “significant risks.” The EU commissioner pointed to the volatility of certain assets, the risk of insider trading, the possibility of crypto being used by Russia to …

The recent European Union proposal requiring centralized crypto exchanges and custodial wallet providers to collect and verify personal information about self-custodial wallet holders shows the dangers of recycling traditional finance (TradFi) rules and applying them to crypto without appreciating the conceptual differences. We can expect to see more of this as countries look to implement the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Travel Rule, initially designed for wire transfers, to transfers of crypto assets. The (missing) link between self-custody, control and identity The aim of the proposed EU rules is “to ensure crypto-assets can be traced in the same way as …

Digital asset manager Grayscale Investments is planning to expand its product offerings into Europe to tap into growing institutional demand for cryptocurrencies in the region, CEO Michael Sonnenshein confirmed Tuesday. In an interview with Bloomberg, Sonnenshein said the company was holding meetings with local partners to discuss how Grayscale’s suite of products would be rolled out in the region. The company hasn’t made any definitive plans regarding which exchanges and countries would be supported initially, though Grayscale plans to launch pilot tests in several markets across the European Union. Sonnenshein explained that Grayscale would be looking at investor behaviors and …

In her monthly Expert Take column, Selva Ozelli, an international tax attorney and CPA, covers the intersection between emerging technologies and sustainability, and provides the latest developments around taxes, AML/CFT regulations and legal issues affecting crypto and blockchain. Germany has risen to the top spot of Coincub’s guide to the most crypto-friendly countries in Q1 2022. The European country allows its long-term domestic savings industry to utilize crypto investments, supported by its zero-tax policy on long-term capital gains from crypto, and its number of Bitcoin and Ethereum nodes is second only to the United States. Blockchain adoption In 2019, Germany …

As France braces for the April 24 presidential election in a runoff, political pundits around the globe are making their bets. The choice is between the centrist incumbent Emmanuel Macron and right-wing populist Marine Le Pen. Much of the political debate this time revolves around economics, but there is one indispensable part of it that is largely absent from the candidates’ electoral agendas: digital assets. While both have a record of public statements on matters related to crypto, neither Macron nor Le Pen seems to be likely to trigger any significant policy change with regard to the French digital economy. …

Mere days before the second round of the fateful presidential election in France, the incumbent president of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, sat down with local media to share his thoughts on the digital economy — a subject on which he hasn't spoken much previously. While emphasizing the importance of the sector, Macron once again reiterated his support for the pan-European approach to financial technology regulation. The interview with French publication The Big Wale came on Friday, two days before the runoff that will see Macron face the right-wing populist Marine Le Pen. According to most polls, Macron is likely to …

European Union officials discussed banning Bitcoin (BTC) trading during a debate on a proposal to ban proof-of-work (PoW) mining, according to documents obtained through a freedom of information request. According to a report published by German digital culture organization Netzpolitik, officials from the EU went as far as suggesting that an all-out ban on trading Bitcoin should be enforced in order to curb its overall energy consumption. The most worrying comments, from the crypto community’s perspective, came from a document that detailed some minutes from an EU meeting with Sweden’s financial supervisor and an environmental protection agency. These officials suggested …

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, is adopting major restrictions on users in Russia following the European Union’s fifth package of sanctions against Russia. Binance officially announced Thursday new limitations for Russian nationals or residents of Russia, restricting such persons from trading if they hold over 10,000 euros, or $10,800. Restricted accounts are no longer able to deposit or trade using Binance’s spot, futures and custody wallets, as well as staked and earned deposits. The restriction relates to Russian nationals, natural persons residing in Russia and legal entities based in Russia, the announcement notes, adding: “Accounts for Russian …

Many Ukraine-based businesses have had to shutter or suspend operations following the outbreak of the conflict with Russia on Feb. 24, but some in the cryptocurrency space have been able to keep running, albeit with many staff in bomb shelters, scattered across the world and facing an uncertain future. Speaking to Cointelegraph, Arsenii Hurtavtsov, a Ukrainian national and CEO of nonfungible token service provider Finch, said he managed to get on one of the last flights from Kyiv to Azerbaijan on Feb. 23 before the country began blocking many men from leaving, likely in anticipation of needing individuals for the …