EU's MiCA Bill Moves Forward Without Bitcoin Limiting Provision
The EU's landmark legislative package for governing crypto assets is moving on to the next stage of negotiations without the divisive provision seeking to restrict the use of proof-of-work crypto.
Mar 25, 2022 at 11:36 a.m. UTC:format(webp)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/ZBUHKZ4FORAELOI2RJBFAGEYLM.jpg)
European Union flags at Berlaymont building of the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium (Santiago Urquijo/Getty)
Sandali Handagama is a CoinDesk reporter with a focus on crypto regulation and policy. She does not own any crypto.
The European Union's (EU) proposed Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulatory package is moving forward to the next phase of discussions without a controversial provision seeking to restrict the use of cryptos like bitcoin (BTC) that are based on proof-of-work.
- In the past few days, EU lawmakers have been negotiating a mandate for the proposed landmark legislation for digital assets, which does not contain a provision seeking to limit the use of proof-of-work cryptocurrencies in the EU, before it moves on to the trilogue negotiations between the parliament, council and commission.
- Earlier in the week, Stefan Berger, the parliamentarian overseeing the MiCA framework, expressed concerns that other EU leaders in favor of limiting the use of proof-of-work cryptocurrencies would make one last attempt to take the legislation to a full parliamentary vote ahead of the trilogue.
- The parliament has not challenged the negotiation mandate for MiCA, Berger tweeted early on Friday. The deadline for challenging the mandate ended at midnight on Thursday, according to Berger.
- The provision in question was defeated in a close committee vote on March 14.
- EU officials are also debating a number of issues including the inclusion of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralized finance (DeFi) in the MiCA package, as well as which EU agencies should be given supervision powers over the crypto space.
- Berger said the MiCA trilogue is set to begin next week.
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Sandali Handagama is a CoinDesk reporter with a focus on crypto regulation and policy. She does not own any crypto.
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Sandali Handagama is a CoinDesk reporter with a focus on crypto regulation and policy. She does not own any crypto.
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