Important information on the upcoming cryptocurrency legislation in the European Union (European Commission)

I have seen a European Commission internal document, discussing upcoming EU regulations on "crypto-assets". I will not cite anything directly because I am not too sure if this information is public and I do not want these crypto-journalists to write 100 articles about a draft because the document I saw was not a final document (but still important and probably similar to the final document). There is some complicated stuff in there and some vague statements but I did my best to understand the most important sections. It is totally possible that this is a future public document but I am just not sure at this point. It is a document within the Q3 2020 framework.These are some of my observations.They are discussing something very interesting: an EU market-infrastructure to trade and settle security tokens.In general, they are heavily balancing the gradations of regulation against innovation. This means that in the document they are actively stating that they need to watch out with strict regulation as they do not want to damage early innovation in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space. This is good news.The EU is taking stablecoins very seriously. They are currently in favor of tailor-made new EU-legislation on stablecoins. This legislation will have clear rules on the reserves behind stablecoins: they mention disclosure rules AND auditing! The EU emphasizes clearly the possible risks of stablecoins on EU financial stability.They are actively discussing creation an EU-wide framework for exchanges, projects and wallet providers that must protect EU consumers. This means that White Papers of projects/ICOs need to have transparent information that is not misleading. This also means that exchanges must follow rules such as no manipulation, no misleading marketing, sufficient customer support, conflict of interest rules and have mechanisms to prevent market manipulation.Generally, no negative narrative about cryptocurrencies. They even mention some advantages of cryptocurrencies. A negative narrative about stablecoins nonetheless.In sum, I do not expect heavy regulation on cryptocurrencies. I do expect serious regulation on stablecoins and medium regulation on exchanges and wallet providers.Please do not use this information for speculative investment purposes. Thank you.​

Submitted May 28, 2020 at 03:44AM

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