Crypto News
EU Will Likely Ban Bitcoin To No Avail – Bitcoin Magazine
This is an opinion article by Guglielmo Cecero, the legal manager of European bitcoin investment app Relai, and Raphael Schoen, the content lead at Relai.
Bitcoin is under attack. It is increasingly seen as a “dirty currency.” Elon Musk’s Tesla, Wikipedia, Greenpeace and other organizations have stopped accepting BTC for their products or as a means to donate money.
Musk, who is not only one of the richest but also one of the most controversial people on this planet, has said: “Cryptocurrency is a good idea on many levels, and we believe it has a promising future, but this cannot come at great cost to the environment.” Ouch.
And it’s not just Musk. Politicians have also taken aim at Bitcoin.
Before the European Commission’s Markets in Crypto-Asset Regulation (MiCA) regulation was passed, it caused quite a stir within the Bitcoin community, especially due to the left-wing factions of the EU Parliament that were opposed to proof of work (PoW) and the power consumption of the Bitcoin network. In the trilogue, a version of MiCA was finally passed that did not ban PoW or mining.
As became known in April 2022, some members of the European Parliament (MEPs) tried to push through a ban on bitcoin mining and one on BTC trading in the course of the draft law. Luckily, they failed.
However, the foundations for further steps have been laid. For example, the issuers of cryptocurrencies, which we know are mostly simply tech startups, will be obliged to deliver some kind of report on the energy consumption and the associated carbon footprint of the respective asset. Brokers and exchanges, in turn, must inform their customers about these exact figures when they purchase crypto assets.
The increasing aversion to Bitcoin also gained traction through an anti-Bitcoin Greenpeace USA campaign launched in March, which was financed by Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen, among others. Interestingly, Greenpeace accepted bitcoin donations between 2014 and 2021 until they were put on hold due to environmental concerns.
Nearly Half Of The EU Parliament Doesn’t Like Bitcoin
As mentioned, a mining or trading ban for Bitcoin didn’t make it into the MiCA legislation. However, it is very unlikely that members of the EU parliament who tried to implement this in MiCA will give up — we can assume the contrary.
In March 2022, the economic and monetary affairs (ECON) committee in the EU parliament voted against a ban on PoW. Thirty-two members voted against it, 24 in favor. The topic seems to become more and more ideologically driven, as the Social Democrats, the Greens, and the left mostly wanted a PoW ban, whereas the Conservatives, the Liberals and right-wing factions tended to vote against it.
The final MiCA draft created by conservative MEP Stefan Berger included a compromise: Instead of a ban on PoW, they agreed on including a rating system for cryptocurrency to assess their environmental impacts (more on that later).
In an email conversation with Politico, the Spanish Green EU parliament member Ernest Urtasun explained:
“Creating an EU labeling system for crypto will not solve the problem as long as crypto-mining can continue outside the Union, also driven by EU demand… The Commission should rather focus on developing minimum sustainability standards with a clear timeline to comply.”
And he added:
“Ethereum’s recent upgrade just showed that phasing out from environmentally harmful protocols is actually feasible, without causing any disruption to the network.”
The ECB Doesn’t Like Bitcoin — At All
While we see different opinions on Bitcoin in the European Parliament, the signals we’re getting from the European Central Bank (ECB) are very clear. The ECB is issuing warnings about cryptocurrencies on a regular basis, naming their “exorbitant carbon footprint” as “grounds for concern”.
Just recently, on November 30, 2022, the ECB published a blog post titled “Bitcoin’s Last Stand.” In it, ECB’s Market Infrastructure And Payments Director General Ulrich Bindseil and advisor Jürgen Schaff argue that, “Bitcoin’s conceptual design and technological shortcomings make it questionable as a means of payment.”
According to Bindseil and Schaff, Bitcoin transactions are “cumbersome, slow and expensive,” which they say explains why the world’s largest cryptocurrency — created to overcome the existing monetary and financial system — “has never been used to any significant extent for legal real-world transactions.” Bindseil and Schaff added that since Bitcoin is neither an effective payment system nor a form of investment, “it should be treated as neither in regulatory terms and thus should not be legitimized.”
While it may seem paradoxical to very vocally attack something that is on the “road to irrelevance,” it is not the first time that the ECB has attacked Bitcoin.
In July 2022, the ECB singled out Bitcoin in a research article and compared proof of work to fossil fuel cars while considering proof of stake as more akin to electric vehicles. Let’s ignore for a minute that this doesn’t make sense and look at what it wrote in detail:
“Public authorities should not stifle innovation, as it is a driver of economic growth. Although the benefit for society of bitcoin itself is doubtful, blockchain technology in principle may provide yet unknown benefits and technological applications. Hence, authorities could choose not to intervene with a view to supporting digital innovation. At the same time, it is difficult to see how authorities could opt to ban petrol cars over a transition period but turn a blind eye to bitcoin-type assets built on PoW technology, with country-sized energy consumption footprints and yearly carbon emissions that currently negate most euro area countries’ past and target GHG saving. This holds especially given that an alternative, less energy-intensive blockchain technology exists.”
In general, the ECB believes it’s highly unlikely that the European Union will not take action in terms of carbon emissions on PoW-based assets like bitcoin. The authors of the paper argue that in their view it’s likely that the EU will take similar steps on phasing out PoW as they are doing with fossil fuel cars. Especially since, according to them, an “alternative, less energy-intensive” technology like PoS exists.
“To continue with the car analogy, public authorities have the choice of incentivising the crypto version of the electric vehicle (PoS and its various blockchain consensus mechanisms) or to restrict or ban the crypto version of the fossil fuel car (PoW blockchain consensus mechanisms). So, while a hands-off approach by public authorities is possible, it is highly unlikely, and policy action by authorities (e.g. disclosure requirements, carbon tax on crypto transactions or holdings, or outright bans on mining) is probable. The price impact on the crypto-assets targeted by policy action is likely to be commensurate with the severity of the policy action and whether it is a global or regional measure.”
The vast majority of citizens are used to thinking of money as something other than what it really is, and the ECB is also to blame for this. Money is perceived as something that has value by itself, instead of something whose value comes from the interaction between the people who use it.
The euro is subject to both constant changes (regular inflation) and traumatic events (devaluations, forced exchange rates, etc.), but these are ignored or otherwise underestimated. People believe they own it, although they can only exchange it for other things.
For how many and for what things will 100 euros be exchanged in one year, five years or ten years? This is, in no way, up to us.
Its exchange function is constantly changing due to factors we cannot control. The interaction between those who use it is the main factor and, in turn, this interaction depends on economic and monetary policy rules that few people know about.
Bitcoin escapes these rules (and this is the reason why the ECB wants to ban it), it is just code that the ECB and the regulators are trying to make useless. Bitcoin also and above all expresses its value through features that are totally independent of a government’s power and, therefore, the ECBs.
What Will Happen Next?
In 2025, we will see a rating system for cryptocurrencies according to their environmental impact within the European Union — think energy labels for fridges or TVs. You can already expect that bitcoin will get the worst classification. This step will essentially be positive for Ethereum and bad for Bitcoin.
It’s quite unlikely that such a label will scare off investors from buying bitcoin, especially since the Bitcoin community is saying that the Bitcoin network is not an obstacle but a solution for more green energy.
Therefore, the Bitcoin mining industry has the incentive to become greener: The fossil fuel analogy in the ECB paper makes no sense. The energy mix of a PoW network like Bitcoin can come entirely from renewable, green sources. Bitcoin can serve as a way to immediately monetize energy, as is already happening with flared gas that would be flared anyway. However, it’s questionable how fast and effective this effort will be to policymakers, especially since fossil energy companies like Exxon are now mining Bitcoin using flared gas.
The authors of the ECB paper are already implying that a higher bitcoin price equals more energy consumption, as more miners will participate. Destroying demand for bitcoin would hence be an effective solution to bring down the hash rate. At least in theory.
Conclusion
The academic and political consensus seems to point toward something like trying to retire the “old” PoW, and moving towards the “new” PoS standard. Particularly since Ethereum’s recent merge, many bystanders believe this could be a viable path for the Bitcoin network. We doubt that and plan to elaborate on that in a future post. As we’ve seen in different scenarios, banning Bitcoin is hard, if not impossible. The Nigerian government tried, failed and eventually gave up, for instance.
It will be quite a while until 2025, and with an energy crisis, increased focus on carbon emission as well as global uncertainty overall, the only thing we can do at this point is to expect the unexpected.
Even if the worst-case scenario happens, and we see a Bitcoin ban of some sort happen in the EU, we doubt that this will hold forever. Bitcoin does not ask for permission. Bitcoin is something that ontologically struggles to stay inside a fence. It is not an idea derived from anarchist positions, it is an argument derived from the inherent characteristics of the technology introduced by Satoshi Nakamoto. The regulators work in an authorizing logic and so it is clear that they struggle to intercept the Bitcoin phenomenon, which functions regardless of someone else’s permission.
This is a guest post by Guglielmo Cecero and Raphael Schoen. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
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Ki Young Ju, the CEO of data analytic firm CryptoQuant is convinced that Bitcoin is on the cusp of a major lift-off as crypto traders continue to switch from a risk-off to risk-on mode.
Earlier yesterday, Young tweeted that Bitcoin had “entered into the early bull phase”, suggesting that the top cryptocurrency by market capitalization could be preparing to push higher. Despite plunging by roughly 77% on the back of macroeconomic headwinds and a wider route in the crypto industry last year, Bitcoin has had a good run so far this year. This month alone, the crypto asset’s value grew over 40%, fully recovering from the FTX-induced sell-off and perching above levels last seen in August.
According to Young, whereas the asset’s price could pull back following the recent pump, there is a higher chance that it will continue to rise as various metrics turn positive. Highlighting the MVRV ratio, a profit and loss indicator that measures if the bitcoin price is undervalued or overvalued, the pundit noted that most investors were still underwater, reducing the incentive to sell.
Typically, when MVRV is above 3.7 (red area), bitcoin is said to be overvalued (market tops), and when it is below 1 (green area), bitcoin is said to be undervalued (market bottom). Recently the MVRV indicator moved above 1 (1.07), signalling the beginning of a bull cycle.
In Young’s words;
 
 
“No one would want to sell here at a significant loss. If someone sells a lot, it’s highly likely forced & unwanted selling due to bankruptcy, government-seized coins, etc.”
On Wednesday, Young also stated that there was a likelihood that wealthy investors would purchase struggling US-based Bitcoin (BTC) mining companies and their crypto holdings at a discount this year, preventing further miner capitulation. According to him, such acquisitions would significantly remove systematic risks associated with the mining sector, igniting a bullish storm for BTC and other cryptocurrencies.
“BTC miner capitulation might play out differently this time. Less likely, but it could be bullish if someone(s) acquires US-based Bitcoin mining companies and their crypto holdings at a significant discount this year,” he said.
Notably, the total supply of BTC in loss hit a 9-month-low this week, the lowest since April 2022, when Bitcoin was trading in the $40,000 range. Cryptoquant noted that “every time the supply in loss reaches values above 50%, capitulations occur, and price bottoms can be identified along Bitcoin’s history.” Currently, 32% of Bitcoin’s total supply is in loss after dropping from about 55% a month ago.
At press time, Bitcoin was trading at $23,049, up 0.14% in the past 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
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FTX Attorneys To Drag SBF’s Parents And Brother In Questioning About Their Personal Wealth
The tragedy of FTX appears to be becoming more personal, as the bankrupt exchange’s legal counsels are now seeking to drag the founder’s family members and grill them about how they established their affluence.
In a court filing, FTX attorneys requested that Sam Bankman-Fried’s parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, testify under oath and produce financial papers regarding their personal fortune as part of the company’s effort to reclaim funds that may be used to repay creditors.
Gabriel, the brother of former FTX CEO Bankman-Fried, will also be questioned in court over any financial benefits he may have gotten from the company.
SBF, although being collaborative to the point of spending the rest of his life in prison, has neglected to provide federal prosecutors with all the necessary information regarding the diverted money, resulting in the current situation.
Image: Euronews
Lawyers Seek Answer From SBF Family If They Received Money From FTX
In light of claims that FTX shifted billions of dollars in investor cash to prop up his Alameda Research trading unit, federal authorities have accused him with fraud. SBF entered a not-guilty plea.
According to reports, other FTX executives may be subject to the same inquiry in an attempt to locate assets associated with the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange.
Sources also have it that Bankman-Fried’s mother provided tax advice and recruitment assistance to FTX personnel.
FTX former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried. Image: CNA.
FTX former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried. Image: CNA.Reportedly, his father served as a tax counsel to employees of the company and provided recommendations for the appointment of the company’s legal team.
Supposedly, Gabriel established a lobbying group and housed its operations in a mansion worth several million dollars not far from the U.S. Capitol.
It has been stated that his mother and brother are not helping with the investigation that is currently taking place into FTX.
Reuters reported in November that Bankman-Fried’s parents were signatories on a $16.4 million residence in the Bahamas, which was designated in property records as a “holiday home.”
FTX Owes Thousands Of Creditors Money
SBF faces eight criminal counts, including violations of campaign finance regulations and wire fraud. Since his extradition from the Bahamas to the United States, he has been under house arrest at his parents’ home. His trial is scheduled to commence in October.
After the collapse of the once-powerful cryptocurrency exchange in November, newly released bankruptcy records revealed thousands of creditors to whom FTX owes funds.
Wall Street stalwarts like JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs were included on the 116-page list of creditors, which also included firms, charities, people, and other institutions.
Crypto total market cap at $996 billion on the daily chart | Chart: TradingView.com
Meanwhile, FTX has opposed to a request from the U.S. Department of Justice for an independent inquiry into the company’s collapse, claiming that it is already conducting a comprehensive review that includes family members of SBF.
FTT, the native token of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, had risen by 185% over the last 30 days.
At the time of writing, the altcoin was trading for $1,940, a decrease of approximately 22% from its previous price of $2,4.00.
-Featured image: Novel Suspects
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New CCO brings three decades of financial services experience
SAN FRANCISCO – Jan. 24, 2023 – Kraken, one of the world’s largest and most-trusted crypto platforms, today announced the appointment of CJ Rinaldi as Chief Compliance Officer. CJ’s decades of experience, both in traditional and decentralized finance, will further strengthen Kraken’s compliance program amid a fast-evolving regulatory landscape.
“To accelerate the adoption of cryptocurrencies around the world, Kraken must continue to navigate an increasingly complex regulatory landscape,” said Kraken’s incoming CEO David Ripley. “CJ’s impressive international career in both the private and public sectors positions us for continued success in meeting global compliance needs.”
CJ was previously Chief Compliance Officer at Blockchain.com, where he was tasked with building out global compliance frameworks and mitigating compliance risk for the firm. Prior to that, CJ had several roles at Deutsche Bank, including Chief Compliance Officer for its swap dealer and US broker dealer. He also served as Head of Business Line Anti-Financial Crimes Compliance supporting its investment bank, where he led a global team tasked with mitigating financial crime risk, implementing procedures and controls through effective and efficient operational solutions.
“Kraken’s commitment to security and transparency while building world class products and services makes it the gold standard in an industry that’s shaping the future of finance. It is trusted players like Kraken that will help ensure the crypto ecosystem operates within all regulatory frameworks” says Rinaldi. “I am excited to grow Kraken’s data-driven approach to compliance, ensuring the protection of both the company and its clients.”
Prior to Deutsche Bank, CJ worked at UBS Investment Bank in multiple roles, including as Global Head of Client Infrastructure. He also served as Senior Counsel in the Enforcement Division of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
For more information, please visit kraken.com or reach out to [email protected].
About Kraken:
Kraken is one of the world’s longest-standing digital asset platforms. Globally, Kraken clients trade more than 200 digital assets and 8 different national currencies, including GBP, EUR, USD, CAD, JPY, CHF, AUD and AED.
Kraken was founded in 2011 and was one of the first exchanges to offer spot trading with margin, parachain auctions, staking, regulated derivatives and index services. In 2022, it launched a custodial NFT marketplace. Kraken is trusted by over 9 million traders and institutions around the world and offers professional, round-the-clock online support. Kraken was the first company to have ever conducted a Proof of Reserves audit and has since committed to undergoing Proof of Reserves on a regular basis.
Kraken is backed by investors including Tribe Capital, SkyBridge, Hummingbird Ventures, Blockchain Capital, Digital Currency Group, among others.
Kraken markets can be monitored and traded through the Kraken iOS and Android apps, and through the Cryptowatch iOS, Android and Desktop apps.
Contacts:
[email protected]
Alex Rapoport
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These materials are for general information purposes only and are not investment advice or a recommendation or solicitation to buy, sell or hold any cryptoasset or to engage in any specific trading strategy. Some crypto products and markets are unregulated, and you may not be protected by government compensation and/or regulatory protection schemes. The unpredictable nature of the cryptoasset markets can lead to loss of funds. Tax may be payable on any return and/or on any increase in the value of your cryptoassets and you should seek independent advice on your taxation position. For more information, please see our Terms of Service.
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