EU lawmakers thrash out new crypto law

National operators in the EU are required to show controls for combating money laundering, which is a largely unregulated area in the world.

Representatives from the European Parliament and EU states thrashed out a deal on the markets in the MiCA law, which is expected to come into force around the end of 2023.

Stefan Berger, the center right lawmaker who led the negotiations on behalf of the parliament, said today we set out clear rules for a harmonized market and put order in the Wild West of Crypto assets.

Berger said that the recent fall in the value of digital currencies shows us how risky and speculative they are and that it is fundamental to act.

Ernest Urtasun, a Green Party lawmaker, said that the winter has had a chilling effect on Coinbase and Robinhood MiCA will be the first comprehensive regime for cryptocurrencies in the world and will contain strong measures to protect against market abuse and manipulation. The new law gives issuers of cryptocurrencies assets and providers of related services a passport to serve clients across the EU from a single base while meeting capital and consumer protection rules. The United States and Britain have yet to approve similar rules, even though they are two major criptocurrencies centers. After the collapse of TerraUSD and luna token last month, the US currency lending company Celsius Network has frozen withdrawals and transfers. The late March level of $48,200 had collapsed this month to around $17,600, and was trading around $18,900 on Thursday, well below its late March level of $48,200, as investors nurse losses. The negotiations on Thursday focused on issues such as the supervision and energy consumption of cryptocurrencies. Berger said that they had agreed that cryptanalysts should disclose the energy consumption and environmental impact of assets in the future. EU states will be the main regulators for cryptocurrencies, though the bloc's securities watchdog ESMA will have powers to step in if investor protection or financial stability is threatened, according to lawmaker Urtasun.