Crypto firms urge EU to back away from tougher regulation

Several crypto-industry representatives urged European lawmakers and finance ministers to rethink anti-money-laundering rules. CoinDesk reports, citing a letter.

According to the publication, the letter was signed by scientists, lobbyists and top executives of Ledger, Aave and Blockchain.com. They called the legislative proposals onerous and alarming.

“The European Parliament’s proposals, leading to the disclosure of all transactions and wallet addresses, would put at risk every holder of digital assets […] and threaten years of preparatory work and the future of Web 3.0 in Europe,” the letter says.

In July 2021, the European Commission prepared a draft bill in line with FATF recommendations. The document envisages the integration of a “travel rule” and bans anonymous crypto transactions.

In March 2022, the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs adopted the draft regulation on regulating cryptocurrencies MiCA. The final version did not include an amendment prohibiting mining under the Proof-of-Work consensus algorithm.

Earlier in the same month, the European Parliament backed mandatory verification of users of non-custodial crypto wallets. The amendments are provided for in the regulation governing information exchange between counterparties.

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