European Parliament backs first set of EU regulations for crypto assets; Rules to be deployed in 2024

The European Parliament on Thursday overwhelmingly backed the European Union’s first set of rules aimed at regulating crypto-asset markets.

Parliament voted 517 in favor and 38 against to approve the world’s first comprehensive set of regulations for the issuance and trading of crypto-assets such as bitcoin.

“This regulation brings a competitive advantage to the EU,” said Stefan Berger, the lawmaker who led the rules in parliament.

“The European crypto-asset industry has a regulatory clarity that doesn’t exist in countries like the United States,” Berger said.

EU states have already agreed to rules to be rolled out from mid-2024, requiring companies that issue and trade crypto-assets to be licensed by a national regulator, giving them a “passport” to serve customers across the bloc of 27 member countries. .

Major service providers will be required to disclose their energy consumption.

“I hope our rules can become a model for other countries,” EU financial services chief Mairead McGuinness said during a debate on the rules on Wednesday.

Parliament has also backed new rules for tracing transfers of crypto-assets like bitcoins and e-money tokens.

It applies the international “travel rule” already used in traditional financial transactions, meaning that information about the source and recipient of the cryo-asset will need to accompany and be stored on both sides of the transfer to help combat money laundering. money.

The tracing rule also covers transactions over €1,000 from a “self-hosted” wallet or a private user’s crypto address.

© Thomson Reuters 2023

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