{"id":347824,"date":"2018-08-30T06:30:31","date_gmt":"2018-08-30T06:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wncen.com\/?p=347824"},"modified":"2024-06-11T07:30:19","modified_gmt":"2024-06-11T07:30:19","slug":"will-eu-tightening-crypto-regulations-affect-bitcoin-price","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wncen.com\/news\/will-eu-tightening-crypto-regulations-affect-bitcoin-price\/","title":{"rendered":"Will EU Tightening Crypto Regulations Affect Bitcoin Price?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Finance Ministers in the European Union\u2019s member states are taking a closer look at cryptocurrencies and the regulatory challenges they pose. They will be discussing whether or not regulations on the industry should be tightened and will be looking at issues including the lack of industry transparency, and the misuse of cryptocurrency for illicit purposes, like money laundering, tax evasion, and terrorism financing.<\/p>\n
The meeting will be taking place in Vienna on September 7th, according to a draft note obtained by Bloomberg<\/a>. According to the document, European regulators notably view Initial Coin Offerings as a \u201cefficient way to raise capital\u201d and are interested in looking at how cryptocurrencies can modernize current economic systems, meaning that the meeting will not be entirely negative.<\/p>\n The meeting comes as global regulators are taking a closer look at the cryptocurrency industry and how to best regulate the relatively young markets.\u00a0 It is unclear whether any harsh stances will be taken that affect the cryptocurrency markets.<\/p>\n Regulators in China have notably been working tirelessly to maintain their government\u2019s ban on cryptocurrencies, but most countries are taking far more well-reasoned approaches to the industry. Although it is unclear what the results of the upcoming EU regulator\u2019s meeting will be, the group has taken a \u201cdo-no-harm\u201d approach to the industry, allowing for growth and innovation while trying to reduce the amount of fraud and illicit activities.<\/p>\n Regulatory groups in the United States have been sending mixed signals to investors, although their approaches generally appear to be reasonable.\u00a0 The Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) has been fairly quiet on cryptocurrency regulation but has been rejecting countless ETF applications due to fears of \u201cmarket manipulation\u201d and volatility.<\/p>\n The SEC\u2019s regulatory counterpart, the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has been advocating for the cryptocurrency markets, expressing that the technology and investors deserve \u201crespect\u201d and that regulations should only act to benefit the markets and investors.<\/p>\n Notably, the US Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin, advocated for a sandbox regulatory environment for the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry in his department\u2019s Fintech report addressed to US President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n In the report<\/a>, Mnuchin stated that:<\/p>\n \u201cInternationally, many countries have established \u2018innovation facilitators\u2019 and various regulatory \u2018sandboxes\u2019 \u2014 testing grounds for innovation\u2026While replicating this approach in the United States is complicated by the fragmentation of our financial regulatory system, Treasury is committed to working with federal and state financial regulators to establish a unified solution that accomplishes these objectives \u2014 in essence, a regulatory sandbox.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Mnuchin also added that the United States must \u201cstay abreast of developments in technology and to properly tailor regulations in a manner that does not constrain innovation,\u201d while speaking about crypto and blockchain technology.<\/p>\n Japan has notably been focused more on regulating cryptocurrency exchanges rather than the broader cryptocurrency markets. One such action taken by Japanese regulatory authorities is the targeting<\/a>\u00a0of cryptocurrencies with anonymity features, like Monero and Zcash, forcing exchanges to remove them.<\/p>\nGlobal Regulators Taking Conflicting Approaches to Industry Regulation<\/strong><\/h2>\n