ECB Wants Quick Action on Crypto Regulation Following Russian Sanctions
The European parliament earlier today postponed a vote on a regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies.
Feb 25, 2022 at 7:20 p.m. UTCUpdated May 11, 2023 at 6:39 p.m. UTC
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Speaking to the press following a meeting of the EU's Economic and Financial Affairs Council, ECB President Christine Lagarde says it's "critically important" for the so-called MiCA legislation to be pushed through as soon as possible.
- The Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) legislation has been worked on for several years to provide a structure for broadly regulating the burgeoning cryptocurrency market. A vote on its passage was supposed to take place on Feb. 28, but was suspended indefinitely today on criticism that wording in the bill could overly restrict or even ban the energy-intensive proof-of-work process that secures the Bitcoin (BTC) network, among others.
- While there's been lots of speculation on how Russia might make use of cryptocurrency networks to assist in evading stringent financial sanctions imposed by the EU and U.S., many legal and blockchain experts aren't convinced it's possible.
- The ECB's Lagarde: "There are always criminal ways to try to circumvent a prohibition, which is why it's so critically important that MiCA is pushed through as quickly as possible so we have a regulatory framework."
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Stephen Alpher is CoinDesk's managing editor for Markets. He holds BTC above CoinDesk’s disclosure threshold of $1,000.