Europe has a plan to regulate cryptocurrencies

The European Union is working on a body to oversee the emergence and exchange of digital currencies, starting with Facebook's Libra project

Cryptocurrencies (Photo by Ina Fassbender / Afp via Getty Images) The European Union wants to equip itself with a college of supervisors to regulate the exchange of cryptocurrencies, so as to prevent market distortions, money laundering risks, speculation and counter the extreme volatility associated with these electronic currencies. It would be the first institution in the world to establish such a control. This was revealed by the Euractiv newspaper, which had the opportunity to preview the draft of a proposal from the European Commission that should be discussed in Brussels in the coming weeks.

To speed up work towards coordination at European level on the issue of cryptocurrencies, the emergence of the Libra project, the much contested electronic money promoted by Facebook and the Libra Association, as well as the recent positions taken by some central banks of the EU countries, as in the case of France, certainly contributed. has also begun to move independently on the front of an electronic state money.

According to the law, this college will be chaired by the European Banking Authority (EBA) and will be composed of the national authorities of the member states in the which organizations that manage major cryptocurrencies and electronic coins such as Libra and other so-called "sta blecoins ”, ie linked to sovereign currencies. In addition, the European Financial Instruments and Markets Authority (ESMA), the European Central Bank (ECB) and other central institutions of the member countries will also participate in the decisions of this college.