The European Union is considering a strict ban on cryptos like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) for environmental hazards concerns in the impending MiCA vote by EU lawmakers. According to a report on news.com.au, the parliament sitting that decides the matter is set to hold today to discuss the concerns.
There have been environmental concerns of mining crypto by the European Union, most especially Bitcoin. The cryptocurrency is believed to be exhausting an insurmountable amount of energy for minting. According to the report, the digital asset absorbs 91 terawatt-hours of electricity yearly, a figure that is way more than the energy that a country like Finland utilizes in electric power in a year.
While there are the concerns of Russia evading sanctions to still trade cryptocurrency to fund their fight against Ukraine, the electricity utilization of bitcoin is the reason why the EU parliament will be converging to decide on the possible way forward to ensure that the energy consumed by the crypto asset is minimized or possibly banned.
The presiding body of the crypto ban proposal is a body that is part of the European Union’s economic and monetary affairs committee. As reported by CryptoMarketsBeat, they will be voting on the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA)’s draft and deciding the fate of Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).
One of the drafts of the proposal to be considered is that “Crypto-assets shall be subject to minimum environmental sustainability standards with respect to their consensus mechanism used for validating transactions, before being issued, offered or admitted to trading in the Union.”
Crypto investors, as well as enthusiasts, are keeping their fingers crossed, awaiting the outcome of the EU parliament sitting. Some users have taken to social media to express their concerns on the matter, most especially on Twitter.
The matter of regulatory ban is not alien to bitcoin. China had cracked down on crypto assets last year, and recently, the laws guiding trading in crypto were amended by the Republic’s Supreme Court, announcing jail terms for anyone found guilty of raising public funds in digital currency.
Countries like Qatar, Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Indonesia, and so on have banned bitcoin, raising concerns of its vulnerability to being used for money laundering, and funding terrorism. There are also the issues of regulating digital assets by government agencies.
cmb.com 