EU States Approve World's First Comprehensive Set of Rules to Regulate Crypto in Wake of FTX Collapse

An EU finance minister meeting in Brussels approved rules that were thrashed out with the European Parliament.

By Reuters | Updated: 16 May 2023 16:28 IST

EU States Approve World's First Comprehensive Set of Rules to Regulate Crypto in Wake of FTX Collapse

Photo Credit: Reuters

Regulating crypto has become more urgent for regulators after the collapse of crypto exchange FTX

Highlights

Britain has outlined a phased approach
Crypto firms say they want certainty in regulation
Crypto firms are putting pressure on countries to copy the EU rules

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.

An EU finance minister meeting in Brussels approved rules that were thrashed out with the European Parliament, which gave its approval in April.

Regulating crypto has become more urgent for regulators after the collapse of crypto exchange FTX.

Crypto Firms Bagged $2.6 Bln in 2023 Q1 Investments: PitchBook

"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.

Crypto firms say they want certainty in regulation, putting pressure on countries to copy the EU rules, and on regulators to come up with global norms for a cross-border activity.

Binance Pulls Out of Canada Amid Tightened Crypto Regulations

Britain has outlined a phased approach, starting with stablecoins and broadening out to unbacked cryptoassets later on, but there is no firm timetable.

The United States has focused on using existing securities rules for enforcement action in the sector while it decides on whether to introduce bespoke new rules and who would apply them.

Hester Peirce, one of the commissioners at the US derivatives regulator CFTC, said last week that a number of federal and state authorities are trying to figure out what oversight role they could play in the crypto sector.

"We are wandering the in the desert a bit," Peirce told a conference.

© Thomson Reuters 2023

Google I/O 2023 saw Google tell us repeatedly that it cares about AI, alongside the launch of its first foldable phone and Pixel-branded tablet. This year, the company is going to supercharge its apps, services, and Android operating system with AI technology. We discuss this and more on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.