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An
EU finance minister meeting in Brussels approved rules that were
thrashed out with the European Parliament, which gave its
approval in April.
The rules are expected to be rolled out from 2024.
Regulating crypto has become more urgent for regulators after
the collapse of crypto exchange FTX.
"Recent events have confirmed the urgent need for imposing rules
which will better protect Europeans who have invested in these
assets, and prevent the misuse of crypto industry for the
purposes of money laundering and financing of terrorism,"
saidElisabeth Svantesson, finance minister for Sweden, which
holds the EU presidency.
The rules require firms that want to issue, trade and safeguard
cryptoassets, tokenised assets and stablecoins in the 27 country
bloc to obtain a licence.
Ministers took steps to combat tax evasion and the use of
cryptoasset transfers for money laundering by making
transactions easier to trace.
They agreed on a requirement that from January 2026 service
providers obtain the name of senders and beneficiaries in
cryptoassets, regardless of the amount being transferred.
There was also agreement on amending rules on how member
countries cooperate with each other in taxation to cover
transactions in crypto-assets, and on exchanging information on
advance tax rulings for the wealthiest individuals.
Crypto firms say they want certainty in regulation, putting
pressure on countries to copy the EU rules, and on regulators to
come up with global norms for a cross-border activity.
Britain has outlined a phased approach, starting with
stablecoins and broadening out to un-backed cryptoassets later
on, but there is no firm timetable.
The United States has focused on using existing securities rules
for enforcement action in the sector while it decides on whether
to introduce bespoke new rules and who would apply them.
Hester Peirce, one of the commissioners at the U.S. derivatives
regulator CFTC, said last week that a number of federal and
state authorities are trying to figure out what oversight role
they could play in the crypto sector.
"We are wandering in the desert a bit," Peirce told a
conference.
(Reporting by Huw Jones, Editing by Louise Heavens)
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