The Netherlands must immediately implement a full ban on Bitcoin mining and Bitcoin transactions, said Peter Hasenkamp, director of the Bureau for Economic Analysis at the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
In his article, the official outlined a range of reasons why the authorities should declare the first cryptocurrency illegal. In his view, digital gold has no intrinsic value, and the coin itself fails to fulfill any of the three functions of money: a unit of account, a means of payment, and a store of value.
Hasenkamp mentioned security issues, fraud risks, and added that digital assets are used in criminal activity. The Netherlands lags behind countries that have taken measures to “curb the hype around cryptocurrencies” in recent years, the article says.
“Dutch regulators have tried to tighten oversight of trading platforms, but with little success. The Central Planning Bureau pointed to the risks of cryptocurrency trading in 2018, but concluded that stricter regulation is not yet necessary,” Hasenkamp said.
He also referenced Gresham’s Law, which states that “bad money” drives out “good.” According to the official, in the case of Bitcoin it could operate in the opposite way:
“Cryptocurrencies are not used in ordinary transactions. Bad money leaves circulation because no one wants to accept it anymore.”
Hasenkamp said that a collapse in digital assets was inevitable and urged the authorities to make access to the market more difficult for citizens.
“That is fair for both authorities and investors. … The Netherlands must immediately ban Bitcoin,” he stressed.
Bitonic required from clientsto confirm each withdrawal address by sending a screenshot of the wallet or a signed message.
In January 2021, Bitonic filed a lawsuit against the central bank. The platform said that implementing an expanded verification protocol violates existing privacy laws for users.
In April, the district court of Rotterdam ordered the regulator to justify the requirements imposed on cryptocurrency service providers.
In May, the central bank refused to tighten the rules, calling them not sufficiently fair.