The European Union (EU) has agreed on a legal framework for bitcoins and cryptocurrencies known as Markets in Crypto Asset Regulation (MiCA), according to a report from CoinDesk.
The bill was approved by members of the EU Council on Wednesday and consists of a regulatory framework established earlier in June, which is said to have received no further development since then.
MiCA sets licensing requirements for exchanges and wallet providers in the 27 EU member countries, including the need to verify the identity of users. Additionally, the legislation imposes capital requirements on the aforementioned service providers. Capital requirements are expected to avoid depegging events as seen with the collapse of the Terra ecosystem, as well as avoid other major liquidity problems.
Although the full text of the legislation is currently under seal, the bill is expected to be covered by the EU’s Official Journal before it comes into force in 2024.
The EU has also placed bitcoin and cryptocurrencies at the top of its agenda for the upcoming annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, according to a Bloomberg report.
“We have a full agenda for the United States next week, and one of the topics that won’t be at the bottom of the list, it will be at the top is crypto,” said Mairead McGuinness, finance commissioner of the EU services.
With the imminent implementation of MiCA, the EU will be the first global attempt to create a regulatory framework on this scale. However, EU regulators are looking forward to the next meeting to discuss the regulation with the US, as European regulators feel that a global effort will be needed to really establish a reliable framework.
“[Regulation]”A bit like climate change, tackling crypto alone in the EU is not enough, we need to have a global commitment and share experiences,” McGuinness said.
