A new report says the European Central Bank (ECB) is set to caution European Union (EU) members against pre-empting crypto rules being prepared for the Eurozone. The Financial Times report says that the ECB is concerned about the chaos that would be occasioned by the introduction of varying and potentially clashing crypto regulations by different […]
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The euro has had a sluggish start to the second half of 2022 as the fiat currency slid to a 20-year low against the U.S. dollar. The drop adds to the fear that the global economy is in a recession and analysts believe that the risk of “parity is just a matter of time now.” […]
Regulators from 19 EU member states will reportedly attend a supervisory board meeting in July to discuss MiCA and its possible implementation.
The European Central Bank, or ECB, will reportedly be preparing to implement a new law by warning European Union member states about the necessity of harmonizing regulations for crypto.
According to a Sunday report from the Financial Times, the ECB was concerned about possible regulatory overlap between respective central banks in the EU and crypto companies as officials prepare to implement the Markets in Crypto-Assets, or MiCA, framework. The European Parliament, European Commission, and European Council reached an agreement on June 30 to bring crypto issuers and service providers within their jurisdictional control under a single regulatory framework.
Regulators from 19 EU member states will reportedly attend a supervisory board meeting in July to discuss MiCA and its possible implementation. Once implemented, the law will require asset service providers to adhere to certain requirements aimed at protecting investors as well as warn clients about the potential risk of investing in a volatile crypto market. EU officials will also have an 18-month review period to assess the proposed regulatory framework and determine whether it includes other crypto-related products like nonfungible tokens, or NFTs.
"It’s very challenging," reportedly said an unnamed national regulator. "With MiCA 18 months away, are you better to say, 'until it’s in, do what you like, there’s no regulation' or are you better to try to get a handle on it?"
ECB to warn eurozone countries over crypto regulation https://t.co/e6rzizb4Lp
— Financial Times (@FT) July 4, 2022
Related: Consolidation and centralization: How Europe’s new AML regulation will affect crypto
Before the passage of MiCA, financial regulators from individual European Union member states largely had to handle crypto regulation within their own borders — though officials recently reached an agreement on forming an authority for supervising anti-money laundering regulations for crypto firms. In Germany, the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, or BaFin, is responsible for issuing licenses to crypto firms interested in offering services within the country.
Christine Lagarde introduced a “MiCa II” idea to cover the issues yet untouched by European regulators
A week after the major American crypto lending platform Celsius had to freeze the withdrawal option for its users, European Central Bank (ECB) president Christine Lagarde voiced her conviction on the necessity of tighter scrutiny over this part of the crypto market.
During the testimony before the European Parliament on Monday, June 20, Christine Lagarde expressed her thoughts not only about the looming inflation in Europe and around the globe but also about the increasing activities of crypto-assets staking and lending. In Lagarde’s opinion, this trend demands additional regulatory efforts from the European Union (EU). Referring to the major regulatory package, making its way through the legislative routine, Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCa), she even coined the term “MiCa II”:
“MiCA II should regulate the activities of crypto-asset staking and lending, which are definitely increasing.”
Lagarde warned about the risks, posed by the lack of regulation in this segment of the market:
“Innovations in these unexplored and uncharted territories put consumers at risk, where the lack of regulation is often covering fraud, completely illegitimate claims about valuation, and very often speculation as well as criminal dealings.”
The official made a separate mention of decentralized finance (DeFi), which, from her point of view, also poses a “real risk to financial stability” and thus should be covered by the separate regulatory framework.
A procedure, which caught the ECB head’s attention, staking is available on Proof-of-Stake (PoS) protocol and allows multiple crypto token holders to pool in their tokens, thereby granting the staking pool operator a validator status and rewarding all stakeholders with tokens for their computational resources’ contributions.
Related: The pros and cons of staking cryptocurrency
Lagarde is famous for her overt anti-crypto position and numerous claims that cryptocurrencies are “worth nothing” and “based on nothing.” Meanwhile, the European Commission announced that it’s preparing a digital euro proposal for 2023. The ECB is expected to have a prototype by the end of 2023, and if everything goes well, it may be issued in 2025.
With concerns about financial stability in mind, the European Central Bank (ECB) plans to limit digital euro holdings, according to Board Member Fabio Panetta. The plan is to have a maximum amount of digital cash in circulation similar to that of euro banknotes today, the official unveiled. Eurozone’s Central Bank to Keep Total Digital Euro […]
"Keeping total digital euro holdings between one trillion and one and a half trillion euro would avoid negative effects for the financial system,” said Fabio Panetta.
Fabio Panetta, an executive board member of the European Central Bank, or ECB, proposed the central bank limit the total holdings of a digital euro in an effort to prevent the digital currency from being used as a form of investment.
In a Wednesday speech for the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament, Panetta hinted the ECB could cap the number of digital euros between 1 and 1.5 trillion tokens. The proposed limit would be part of an effort aiming to disincentivize residents from HODLing tokens as an investment like crypto assets, with “with larger holdings subject to less attractive rates.”
“Our preliminary analyses indicate that keeping total digital euro holdings between one trillion and one and a half trillion euro would avoid negative effects for the financial system and monetary policy,” said Panetta. “This amount would be comparable with the current holdings of banknotes in circulation. As the population of the euro area is currently around 340 million, this would allow for holdings of around 3,000 to 4,000 digital euro per capita.”
You can watch Executive Board member Fabio Panetta discussing the ongoing work on a digital euro at the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs @EP_Economics https://t.co/98ggEHbwLg https://t.co/GZxn1ejqMe
— European Central Bank (@ecb) June 15, 2022
Panetta also reiterated that companies in the private sector would likely need to coordinate with public officials for an effective rollout of a digital euro. He has previously suggested the importance of the CBDC being accepted in both physical and online stores and allowing easy person-to-person payments.
Related: ECB, Eurosystem begins experimental prototyping of digital euro customer interface
The ECB announced in July 2021 that it had launched a two-year investigation phase for the CBDC, with a possible release in 2026. In May, the central bank released a working paper suggesting that a “CBDC with anonymity” may be a preferable option when compared with traditional digital payments, but many in the EU are still opposed to a digital euro.
One in every 10 households in six eurozone countries has acquired cryptocurrencies, the European Central Bank (ECB) has found with a new survey. While the richest are most likely to own crypto assets, poor families are not far behind, the poll indicates. Dutch Households Lead in Terms of Crypto Ownership, ECB Survey Shows Every tenth […]
The survey took place in the EU's major economic areas such as France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
On Tuesday, the European Central Bank, or ECB, published the results of a new survey conducted in six eurozone areas; the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Belgium, France, and Germany. Together, approximately 10% of respondents from the surveyed countries said they own cryptocurrencies. Out of this group, only 6% of respondents said they own digital assets worth more than 30,000 euros. Meanwhile, 37% of respondents said they owned up to 999 euros in crypto.
Across all of the countries surveyed, investors in the fifth income quintile (or the wealthiest 20% of the population) consistently had the highest proportion of cryptocurrency ownership relative to other income groups. The Consumer Expectation Survey asked adults aged 18 to 70 if they or anyone in their household owned financial assets in various categories, such as crypto-assets.
The survey was included in a new report published by the ECB the same day regarding the growing adoption of crypto assets despite their risk factors. As cited by the ECB, 56% of respondents in a recent Fidelity survey said they had some exposure to crypto-assets, up from 45% in 2020. Increased availability of crypto-based derivatives and securities on regulated exchanges, such as futures, exchange-traded notes, exchange-traded funds, and OTC-traded trusts, have contributed to the momentum.
In addition, increased regulation has been taken as a sign that public authorities endorse crypto. As an example, the ECB cited Germany allowing institutional funds to invest up to 20% of their holdings in crypto. However, the ECB highlighted at the end of the report that if current trends in digital asset adoption continue, then they will eventually pose a threat to financial stability.
With the approaching tsunami of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) looming ever closer, it shouldn’t come as a surprise when central banks shill their coins at the expense of sounder assets. Recently, European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde went so far as to say that cryptocurrency is “worth nothing.” According to Lagarde, crypto has “no […]
President of the European Central Bank Christine Lagarde has insisted that unlike a digital euro, cryptocurrency has no underlying asset. It should be regulated to prevent people from losing their life savings by speculating on crypto assets, the top ECB official has suggested. Cryptocurrency Is ‘Worth Nothing,’ ECB Governor Claims The head of the eurozone’s […]