eu crypto law Archives

EU lawmakers pass Crypto Assets Regulation Bill

European Union lawmakers have signed the Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA)— landmark legislation that hopes to regulate the digital asset space within the union. The MiCA bill asks those issuing crypto to publish a “crypto-asset white paper” containing information about their project.

The EU Parliament also passed an anti-money laundering bill that requests crypto transfers include data on the payer and payee.

Crypto prices today: Bitcoin down 1.7%, ETH falls 2.8%

Bitcoin is currently trading at $19,090.06, a decline of 1.71% over the previous day. Ethereum is down 2.77% over the last 24 hours to $1,281.75. Solana fell 4.2% to $31.55, while Cardano is trading lower by 6.17% at $0.396. Avalanche (AVAX) fell 5.4% to $16.01. The global crypto market cap stands at $919.65 billion, a 2.39% decline over the previous day.

Portugal plans to impose 28% tax on crypto gains

The Portuguese government has proposed a new crypto tax policy that would take effect as part of its 2023 national budget. It will impose a 28% capital gains tax on cryptocurrency gains made within one year. However, gains realized after one year of holding the crypto assets will be exempt from such a tax. The government also intends to impose a 4% tax on any free crypto transfers.

Bitcoin mining difficulty rises 14%, hits all-time high

Bitcoin mining difficulty hit a new all-time high of 35.61 trillion hashes on Monday, rising over 13.55% from the previous measure. New miners continue to join the network while existing miners ramp up their operations. The climbing difficulty comes in response to a total network hash rate of 257 exahashes per second (EH/s), which is near the record high that was reached last week.

EU finalises crypto anti-money laundering rules

The European Union (EU) has finalised a deal regarding anti-money laundering rules that would apply to crypto transactions. The new rules aim to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing. Crypto-assets service providers will now have to collect and store information to identify people involved in crypto transactions. However, the new regulations will not impose tracking requirements on private, unhosted wallets.

Crypto prices today: Bitcoin falls 3.1%, ETH down 5.9%

Bitcoin is currently trading at $19,436.62, a decline of 3.11% over the previous day. Ethereum is down 5.9% over the last 24 hours to $1,060.38. Solana fell 9% to $31.88, while Cardano is trading lower by 3.25% at $0.452. Avalanche (AVAX) is down 8.31% to $16.58. The global crypto market cap stands at $868.92 billion, a 2.99% decline over the previous day.

North Korean attackers behind $100M Harmony hack: Report

As per a report by blockchain forensics company Elliptic Enterprises, North Korean hackers known as the Lazarus Group are believed to be behind the recent $100 million heist on the Harmony blockchain. Harmony confirmed that its Horizon Bridge, a seamless layer that allows crypto to move across different blockchains, had been hacked last week.

Grayscale sues SEC after Spot Bitcoin ETF rejection

Grayscale Investments sued the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission shortly after the regulator rejected its bid to list the first Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). In its ruling, the SEC said the Grayscale spot ETF application did not do enough to protect investors from “fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices.” Meanwhile, Grayscale said it would continue to leverage all of its resources to advocate for its investors and the “equitable regulatory treatment of Bitcoin investment vehicles.”

OpenSea reports email data breach

An employee of Customer.io, a platform for managing email newsletters and campaigns, leaked a list of OpenSea customers’ emails to an outside party. OpenSea is the world’s largest NFT marketplace. Email newsletter management platforms and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software appear to be a weak spot for crypto firms as data leaks continue to occur frequently.