EU States Approve World's First Comprehensive Crypto Rules (reuters.com) 32
European Union states on Tuesday gave the final nod to the world's first comprehensive set of rules to regulate cryptoassets on Tuesday, piling pressure on countries such as Britain and the United States to play catch up. From a report: An EU finance minister meeting in Brussels approved rules that were thrashed out with the European Parliament, which gave its approval in April. The rules are expected to be rolled out from 2024. Regulating crypto has become more urgent for regulators after the collapse of crypto exchange FTX. "Recent events have confirmed the urgent need for imposing rules which will better protect Europeans who have invested in these assets, and prevent the misuse of crypto industry for the purposes of money laundering and financing of terrorism," said Elisabeth Svantesson, finance minister for Sweden, which holds the EU presidency.
The rules require firms that want to issue, trade and safeguard cryptoassets, tokenised assets and stablecoins in the 27 country bloc to obtain a licence. Ministers took steps to combat tax evasion and the use of cryptoasset transfers for money laundering by making transactions easier to trace. They agreed on a requirement that from January 2026 service providers obtain the name of senders and beneficiaries in cryptoassets, regardless of the amount being transferred.
The rules require firms that want to issue, trade and safeguard cryptoassets, tokenised assets and stablecoins in the 27 country bloc to obtain a licence. Ministers took steps to combat tax evasion and the use of cryptoasset transfers for money laundering by making transactions easier to trace. They agreed on a requirement that from January 2026 service providers obtain the name of senders and beneficiaries in cryptoassets, regardless of the amount being transferred.
Crypto (Score:3)
Re:Crypto (Score:4, Insightful)
Can we please stop abbreviating crypto "currencies" or "assets" as crypto, when cryptography has been around longer, is more important and more prevalent?
LOL! You've already lost that battle... get over it.
Re: Crypto (Score:2)
Annoying as I find the hijacking of the tech term for these ponzi schemes, there's little one can do about how language evolves.
"Get with the times", is what my kid then wisely tells me.
So at best, all we can do is to consistently refer to the phenomena as crypto currencies ourselves.
Re:Crypto (Score:4, Insightful)
Somebody here recently suggested "crapto", which I think characterizes the product nicely.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Stop trying to save the lost cause. "Crapto" = "Crap Token".
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Nah, "klepto" is an even better match, considering what this is mainly used for...
Re: (Score:2)
Can we please stop abbreviating crypto "currencies" or "assets" as crypto, when cryptography has been around longer, is more important and more prevalent?
While I agree with your sentiment, I also think it's time to give up. Same with "hacker" vs "cracker".
Somehow, I doubt my more accurate name of "Digital tulip" will catch on with the "find a bigger fool" crowd.
Re: (Score:2)
What does crypto have to do with global trade?
Re: (Score:3)
Cryptocurrency can easily replace the US dollar.
Narrator: It didn't.
Re: (Score:2)
As for trade, there are still tons of Bitcoin ATMs everywhere...
ATMs are not "global trade", or even local trade. What ATMs do is convert bitcoins into actual money that people can spend (ie. trade it for other goods)
Besides: These rules aren't making crypto illegal. Global traders can still use it. If they want to.
Re: (Score:2)
Cryptocurrency can easily replace the US dollar. Especially because you cannot run the printing press and devalue the currency at will, and there is no way to tamper with it.
As for trade, there are still tons of Bitcoin ATMs everywhere... and they seem to be used all the time, so people who say that Bitcoin is not used for anything isn't seeing a grassroots usage trend.
Cryptobros and their mom's basement economies.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
While cryptocurrency stuff goes to safe harbors like Russia, Iran,
Because it's going so well for them right now.
Especially Iran, having to ban cryptomining because their electricity grid can't keep up with it.
About controlling money, not stopping crime (Score:2)
The EU and USA are headed off a cliff with their monetary systems, and they're desperately afraid that a situation like what exists in Nigeria will arise. What's happening there? Bitcoin is the new fiat on the street. The Nigerians know it's fiat and don't care because paying in "satoshis" is better than using a gubmint CBDC wallet or trusting their banking system.
A few points to consider with money crimes and crypto:
1) Transnational criminal orgs often have top notch accountants working for them day and ni
Our monetary systems are just fine (Score:5, Insightful)
Europe is just fine. The Euro's still holding strong. It's a little bumpy because of that idiot Putin's war. He'll die soon of old age and cooler heads will prevail.
This isn't about crime, it's about rich people getting scammed. A bunch of them got scammed by FTX so now we're going to get investor protections. With that comes standard KYC laws and anti-money laundering laws. Not because any of those ghouls care about crime, but because if you can launder money for the mob you can hide it from the 1%.
Still, it does mean the idiot nepo-babies that run our banking system won't be able to crash the economy with crypto securities like they did with mortgage backed securities in 2008. So I'll take the win.
Not exactly (Score:2)
Seriously, McCarthy told them that the budget they passed in the house would never actually pass. It cuts the VA 22%. They're currently trying to weasel out of that with half baked proposals for where they'll get the money from because the VA is a live rail in America.
It's not working. Even with the media steadfastly refusing to report this as a Republican created disaster folks know they're responsible fo
Re: (Score:1)
Ah, yes the "media" those die-hard Republican supporters who ran with the "Russia, Russia, Russia" conspiracy for so long. The very same conspiracy that turned out to be false, and they're such huuuge Republican supporters they've posted many retractions and apologies for misleading people, that same media right?
Re: (Score:2)
the "Russia, Russia, Russia" conspiracy
The very same conspiracy that turned out to be false
Which Russia conspiracy turned out to be false? What are you even talking about?
The media are die hard supports (Score:2)
This is how and why Trump won (besides Hilary's historically awful campaign). The media gave him $6 billion (with a b) dollars in free advertising in exchange for the $1 billion he (or rather his wealthy donors) spent on his network.
Advertising is killing democracy. Change my mind.
Re: (Score:2)
Trump won because Americans are idiots. Same goes for Biden.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not Russian, nor live in Russia.
Re: (Score:2)
they're desperately afraid that a situation like what exists in Nigeria will arise. What's happening there? Bitcoin is the new fiat on the street.
This won't happen. The big difference is (I expect) Nigera has a largely informal economy and therefore weak government controls. The EU/USA/UK governments, OTOH, can outlaw bitcoin anyday they like, and that will be the end of it (outlaw = not legal for registered businesses to accept it as a form of payment). The fact that they have not attempted to outlaw it yet is evidence they are not afraid.
Of course, even if Bitcoin was outlawed in business, you could still use it in the black market or in offshore i
Most important aspect missing (Score:2)
And that is that any financial service provider, what all crapcoin peddlers will be in the EU by 2024, will have to identify their customers and keep records of their transactions. Of course, these are just standard requirements for _any_ financial service provider and the "crapto" proponents have long since claimed their fetish was "money". Now they are getting their wish, at least legally. Great win!
Thank goodness (Score:1)