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The European Council is out: there will be regulation for cryptocurrencies within the EU bloc. From 2024, crypto platforms will need a license to trade legally within the European Union.

The new legislation is designed to protect investors, the EU body says. A general framework for supply and demand should ensure that everything in the crypto market runs as Europe believes it should. Preventing money laundering is a focus of the bill.

Lucrative

The so-called MiCA (Markets in Cryptoassets) proposal has been developing for several years. The European Commission presented it in September 2020. At the time, a gigantic crypto boom was emerging, forcing the prices of graphics cards to unimaginable heights due to massive shortages and profit opportunities of gigantic proportions. Indeed, these cards were essentially “money printers” that could perform complex calculations to “mine” new crypto coins. This practice was hugely lucrative until energy costs and inflation in particular spoiled the fun. Meanwhile, regular pricing has pretty much returned, and crypto is considerably less prominent in society’s consciousness.

In all likelihood, the popularity of crypto will continue to vary like ebb and flow: although some entities accept Bitcoin or Ethereum, most digital currencies remain speculative tools. It’s therefore high time to create legislation to create order in the chaos, the EU reasons. In addition, this market suffered the infamous fall of the FTX crypto exchange at the end of 2022, which caused nearly a billion euros to disappear from customers. Other exchanges also plunged sharply as a result.

Swedish Finance Minister Elisabeth Svantesson said she welcomed the new proposal. “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.”

Also read: Microsoft bans crypto mining from its online services