Bank of the Netherlands De Nederlandsche Bank announced that each crypto company in the country will have to register with the country's financial regulator, which is necessary to continue its activities legally.
The deadline is January 1, after which any company that has not fulfilled the requirement will be considered unlicensed and, therefore, not eligible to provide financial services to the population of the Netherlands.
The new requirements are due to European principles to combat money laundering to prevent the theft of cryptocurrencies, as well as the illegal withdrawal of funds outside the country.
The Netherlands is certainly not the first and not the last EU country to implement changes in national policies regarding cryptocurrencies . At the moment, only a small part of the member states of the Union that do not have legislation on digital assets remains.
By 2021, this could affect all allied states, which will provide the European Commission with the opportunity to introduce pan-European rules for cryptocurrencies, almost the same as it was done with binary options and CFDs (contract for difference).
EU member states have a synchronized domestic and foreign policy, in recent years, the differences concerned only immigration. When it comes to finance, the only controversy within countries currently raises the question of whether Russia should remain a viable trading partner. Naturally, this discussion between eastern and western states has nothing to do with cryptocurrencies.
In the case of blockchain, the national policy is almost the same. This gives the European Commission the opportunity to intervene and “unify” individual laws and put forward a single set of guidelines.
It is unlikely that the position regarding cryptocurrencies will be harsh, however, decentralization and anonymity of users can be largely eliminated at the idea level.
The fifth anti-money laundering guide will definitely affect decentralization, but in turn will make the industry much more transparent. In general, the European Union may become a center for the development of cryptocurrency, but it is unlikely to become a center for its adoption.
In this sense, the palm will most likely go to countries such as Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan.
Publication date 09/05/2019
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