The ECON Committee of the European Parliament has approved the EU’s Markets in Crypto Assets law (MiCA), on 14 March 2022.
According to reports, the overall committee vote was 31 in favor, four opposing, and 23 abstentions, with the Green and Left parties opposing the legislation the most and the EP Party and RE supporting it the most.
Their motion to reintroduce clauses that would force proof-of-work mining out of the Union, however, failed to clear the committee. It was this very dispute that had delayed the committee votes from the end of last month. In light of recent developments, Dr. Stefan Berger, MiCA’s rapporteur, and the ECON Committee’s leader tweeted,
Berger, in an official statement said,
“By adopting the MiCA report, the European Parliament has paved the way for an innovation-friendly crypto-regulation that can set standards worldwide. The regulation being created is pioneering in terms of innovation, consumer protection, legal certainty and the establishment of reliable supervisory structures in the field of crypto-assets. Many countries around the world will now take a close look at MiCA.”
A final attempt to ban Bitcoin at EU parliament stamped out
The Union has dismissed efforts to ban Bitcoin (BTC) mining and trade in yet another significant move for the crypto industry.
A measure that intended to prohibit the usage of cryptocurrencies that relied on the energy-intensive consensus technique known as proof-of-work was removed by the committee earlier this week. The ruling may have effectively outlawed the prominent cryptocurrency bitcoin (BTC) throughout the European Union.
Instead, the committee voted in favor of an auxiliary solution provision that would require the Commission, which is in charge of proposing new legislation, to submit a legislative proposal by 1 January 2025 to include any crypto-asset mining activities that contribute significantly to climate change in the EU taxonomy (a classification system) for sustainable activities.
The majority of the members voted against banning energy-intensive BTC-related operations, preferring instead to make the processes greener and less harmful to the environment.
This provision was enacted in order to reduce cryptocurrency’s significant carbon footprint. Because of energy problems, proof-of-work has been heavily criticised by regulators and politicians all over the world. Some EU officials are apprehensive that renewable energy will be used to support cryptocurrencies like bitcoin rather than being used for national purposes.
The MiCA proposal will now be sent to EU governing bodies for further discussion. At the time of writing, Bitcoin (BTC) was priced at $38,677.12 with a daily drop of 1.07%.