Vice-President of the European Commission Dombrovskis, at an informal ECOFIN press conference in Vienna, noted that EU member states support legislative initiatives for crypto-assets, since they are already here and “are not going anywhere.”
At the meeting of the Council on Economic and Financial Affairs, in addition to the need to further strengthen the stability of the financial system through the implementation of post-crisis reforms, they discussed the prospects for the development of the cryptocurrency industry in Europe and the need to regulate the industry.
The official emphasized that crypto assets remain part of the financial system and this market continues to grow. European regulators cannot ignore cryptocurrency and intend to move towards it.
In particular, Dombrovskis noted the potential of an initial coin offering, or ICO, and its prospects to take its place in the European financial structure. ICOs held last year raised more than six billion dollars to finance various projects, and this year this amount promises to be even more impressive.
At the same time, the European Commission sees threats associated with the lack of transparency of the cryptocurrency market, so there are unreasonably high risks for investments and its integrity, as well as favorable conditions for money laundering, potential fraud or hacking.
Therefore, members of the Commission are confident in the need for regulators to work at the level G20.
According to the vice president, the main problem of cryptoassets is the lack of a unified classification. Therefore, the issue of adapting existing EU financial rules to these assets or developing new EU rules is the most pressing task for regulators in all countries.
In this context, the official noted joint work with European Supervisory Authorities on the so-called “regulatory mapping of crypto assets.” By now, most countries have come to an understanding of supporting crypto innovation, so the completion of a legal and economic assessment of the market is planned for the end of this year. This assessment is intended to become the foundation for understanding the further vector of development of the crypto industry.
Valdis Dombrovskis noted that the scope of application of the EU legislative framework in the field of combating money laundering and combating terrorism for crypto exchanges has already been expanded.
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