Mairead McGuinness, the European commissioner for financial services, stated that the upcoming regulations were already having an impact as lawmakers get ready to vote on Europe’s historic Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation next year.
She did, however, note that while some businesses support regulation and are already operating in accordance with the upcoming rule, many were opposed to it.
Those opposed to regulation are on a “dangerous path,” according to the policymaker in charge of the introduction of MiCA in the European Union.
“They want it to be separate from and in parallel to it. That’s a very dangerous path.”
She admitted to a major news organization that some people who got involved in cryptocurrency early on did so because they didn’t want to be a part of the controlled, regulated system.
McGuinness has been a firm supporter of standardizing cryptocurrency regulation within the European Union and elsewhere.
She has been in charge of recent initiatives to examine the potential for a coordinated strategy with U.S. officials and to share the EU’s experience with MiCA.
She asserted during the interview that the US is very interested in Europe’s regulatory strategy. She thinks that in the near future, the US and Europe may cooperate on crypto regulations.
“What I found in the U.S. is huge interest in what we were doing here, and the markets and crypto assets legislation. And I believe there will be developments there.”
While the MiCA is yet to be passed and implemented, in November, in light of the collapse of crypto exchange FTX, ECB president Christine Lagarde called for “MiCA II”—an addition to the legislation that was created for the original Markets in Crypto Assets bill. It wasn’t the first time the ECB president called for the bill. She said in June that the bill “should control the activities of crypto-asset staking and lending, which are undoubtedly rising.” Which basically regulates the DeFi sector.
The EU parliament’s legal and language committees are still reviewing the Markets in Crypto Assets bill before it is officially approved. The MiCA framework was approved by the European Parliament’s economics committee in October following trilateral discussions between the EU Council, European Commission, and European Parliament.