The EU Parliament showed a soft attitude, Bitcoin and the virtual currency market ‘breathed’
On March 14, the European Economic and Monetary Commission (ECON) voted against a version of the Digital Asset Markets (MiCA) bill, causing the crypto market to breathe a sigh of relief.
MiCA consists of 126 articles, covering a wide range of crypto-related content such as the legal status of all major cryptocurrencies and stablecoins, mining and trading platforms translation, central bank-issued digital currencies (CBDC), non-fungible tokenization (NFT), and decentralized finance (DeFi).
The main content of Monday’s meeting lay in the significant differences between the two draft versions that were put to vote. One of them has proposals to ban any cryptocurrency operating on the PoW (Proof-of-work) mechanism. Accordingly, crypto issuers must come up with a detailed plan regarding compliance with EU environmental sustainability standards.
However, Bitcoin (BTC) and some other decentralized coins cannot meet these requirements because there is no central issuer or a specific common representative.
Patrick Hansen, chief strategy officer at crypto firm Unstoppable Finance, said that a majority of members of parliament do not approve of a version with tough regulations on cryptocurrencies. Specifically, 32 votes against and only 24 votes in favor, mainly from members of the Green party and the Social-Democratic coalition.
Thus, the bill with more moderate provisions (not including provisions that imply or directly prohibit PoW mechanism), will continue to be considered by the EU authorities according to the process. Along with that, the European Commission (EC) is responsible for studying the proposed “sustainable financial classification of crypto-mining activities” before January 1, 2025.
Cryptocurrency mining is still in the “unsustainable” category before January 2025, so it will not receive investment and support from private companies or governments in Europe. However, this regulation is by no means a total ban – which would dramatically change the status of crypto in Europe if it were to happen.
The draft MiCA will continue to be officially discussed at 3 key EU bodies including the European Commission, Council and Parliament.
Vinh Ngo(According to CoinTelegraph)
at Blogtuan.info – Source: vietnamnet.vn – Read the original article here
