- Late June could bring new EU crypto legislation
- EU legislators seek global lead in digital asset regulation
- US bipartisan effort to regulate crypto introduced in June
The three bodies involved in negotiating European Union rules on Bitcoin [1]and other cryptocurrencies hope to wind up work on the Markets in Crypto-Assets legislation by the end of June as pressure increases to protect investors in an imploding market.
The EU’s clunky legislative machinery entails a “trilogue” between the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the 27 member states. Negotiators met in mid-June and plan to meet again June 30 to get the package done by the end of France’s six-month rotation in the presidency, according to a report by Bloomberg.
NFTs Legislation in Flux
Among other things, negotiators still need to resolve whether to include non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in the legislation and whether to require crypto-asset service providers to disclose energy consumption, because of the massive computing power needed for mining and transactions.
The EU started work on MiCA in 2020 in an effort to set common rules on crypto for the bloc. As it has on privacy issues and high tech, the EU would like to take the lead globally in regulating digital assets.
EU Seeks to Take Regulatory Lead
European Commissioner Mairead McGuinness called on all parties last Friday to reach a compromise on the rules and finish them up. The crash of the Terra stablecoin in May, the halt of withdrawals by the Celsius Network[2], and concerns that Russia is using crypto assets to evade sanctions have made the rules more urgent, she said.
Celsius Network says the global sell-off of crypto assets make it a challenge to normalize its operations, warning it will take some time. Babel Finance, a crypto lender in
