The Netherlands should regulate digital assets rather than ban them, said finance minister Wopke Hoekstra, according to NU.
The official argued that banning cryptocurrencies would only harm the Netherlands. He also acknowledged the need to enact laws for providers of services related to digital assets.
The minister stressed that money laundering via cryptocurrencies is unacceptable.
As previously noted, on 11 June 2021, Peter Hasenkamp, director of the Bureau for Economic Analysis at the Ministry of Economic Affairs, urged a ban on Bitcoin. The official cited security concerns and fraud risks.
In his view, digital gold has no intrinsic value, and the coin itself performs none of the three functions of money: unit of account, medium of exchange and store of value.
In 2020, Dutch authorities required providers of cryptocurrency services to verify incoming and outgoing transactions under sanctions law. The local Bitcoin exchange Bitonic required customers to 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 the expanded verification protocol breached existing privacy laws.
In April, the Rotterdam district court 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”.
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