Despite the turbulence that broke out in the crypto market this summer, there is an important long-term marker that should be considered in any complex assessment — the combination of adoption and regulation. The latest report by EUBlockchain Observatory, named “EU Blockchain Ecosystem Developments,” tries to measure this combination within the European Union, combining the data on each and every member country from Portugal to Slovakia. As the original report counts more than 200 pages, Cointelegraph prepared a summary with the intent to capture the most vital information about the state of crypto and blockchain in Europe. Cointelegraph started from …

Danske Bank, the largest bank in Denmark, laid out its official position on cryptocurrencies on June 17, when it published a four-point notice describing reasons to be careful when trading in digital assets. While the bank urged users to exercise caution, it stopped short of taking any practical stance against cryptocurrency. The bank stated that it won’t offer any cryptocurrency services to its customers itself, but also that it wouldn’t interfere with transactions coming from crypto platforms. “For customers that deposit funds that stem from investments in cryptocurrencies, we will treat them in the same way as deposits of funds …

Crypto trading volumes continue to increase, but several countries’ central banks are keen to ignore it, with Denmark being the latest to join the “crypto is negligible” narrative. Lars Rohde, governor of the country’s central bank doesn’t see the rise of crypto trading as a serious economic threat. “I could be tempted to ignore it,” he told Bloomberg. “I think the term currency is badly used here. Most currencies store value or are means of transactions. There is no stability, no guarantee about the value of cryptocurrencies.” Crypto is a speculative asset at best, he added. When asked about the …

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark published a report explaining the use of IT technologies and services including blockchain, e-governance, big data, and crowdsourcing to fight administrative, or day-to-day, corruption as well as political corruption. Presented during the International Anti-Corruption Conference, or IACC, the report emphasizes the use of blockchain as a technology that will build a more transparent governance and transaction system, further adding that it will also give individuals greater rights over their own data. According to the report, blockchain can be used as a potential anti-corruption tool as it has the ability to store records immutably …

Decentralized finance, more commonly known as DeFi, is quite complicated. Even the heads of DeFi companies seem unable to define the sector in a few sentences. So, here’s another attempt: DeFi is a financial ecosystem, in which it is possible to build tools, services and smart contracts and then bond them together on a blockchain, just like lego. It might not sound like fun, but it’s probably more useful. Lego might well be Denmark’s most famous export, but DeFi’s number one company, MakerDAO, is giving it a run for its money. Since the company was formed in 2015, it has …

A major global company that helps fight illicit cryptocurrency-related activity does not think that privacy in crypto markets is necessarily bad. Despite representing one of the primary sources of crypto transaction data for federal agencies like the Internal Revenue Service and the FBI, Chainalysis does not exactly oppose the privacy and decentralization of crypto. “Complete transparency is not necessarily an ideal place” Jonathan Levin, co-founder and CSO at blockchain and crypto analytics firm Chainalysis, reiterated his stance to privacy in crypto, claiming that full transparency of cryptocurrency transactions might not turn out to be the best situation. Speaking in an …

Law enforcement requests to cryptocurrency exchange Kraken hit their highest ever volume in 2019, rising 49% to 710 as compared with 475 the previous year. The data was revealed in a tweet from the exchange on Jan. 6, which included a snapshot taken from the new 2019 Transparency Report from Kraken’s compliance team. Screenshot, 2019 Global Law Enforcement Requests. Source: @krakenfx American, British and Danish agencies the most proactive As the snapshot reveals, Kraken received a total of 710 information requests from global law enforcement agencies in 2019, marking a sharp increase as compared with both 475 in 2018 and …

Denmark-based cryptocurrency users have begun receiving letters from the Danish tax agency, Skattestyrelsen, requesting that traders provide a full background of all their cryptocurrency transactions, sources informed Cointelegraph on Dec. 10. In its letters, Skattestyrelsen specifically asked crypto users to provide information about profits and losses for fiscal years 2016 to 2018, according to FIFO (First In First Out) principles. These principles represent a method of inventory valuation assuming that all goods are sold or used in the same chronological order in which consumers purchased them. Furthermore, the tax agency asked for the rates used for each transaction, information on …

An act of paternalism or a case of generic Bitcoin (BTC) distrust? It is hard to make out the exact reasons for Nordea Bank’s ban on its 31,500 employees trading in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies — even on their own time — a prohibition that was upheld on Dec. 2 by a Danish court. In a press release posted by the court following its ruling, Nordea Bank noted that, "Employees are permitted to keep any existing [crypto] holdings,” though it added that they were encouraged to sell them. As reported by Cointelegraph, Denmark’s finance industry union, Finansforbundet, brought a class-action …

Three national units of the Red Cross — the largest humanitarian donor after the United Nations — are backing a blockchain-based currency scheme to enhance aid delivery and boost local economies. According to a report from the Thomas Reuters Foundation on Nov. 26, the Red Cross societies of Norway, Denmark and Kenya have launched a two-year plan to replace cash and voucher provision in aid and development efforts with blockchain-backed "local currencies." Plans to onboard 320,000 users As the report outlines, the Red Cross currently distributes $1 billion annually as cash and vouchers, either specifically targeted at disaster relief or …

A 33-year old Danish man has been sentenced to four years and three months in jail for laundering over $450,000 in Bitcoin (BTC), tech news agency The Next Web reports April 8. Citing a press release from Danish Police, the report says that the criminal pleaded guilty to laundering 3 million Danish kroner that came from criminal activity. The crypto launderer reportedly exchanged the dirty money in Bitcoin and sent the funds to his accomplices via accounts of unspecified foreign crypto exchanges. Danish police reportedly detected the intruder through an investigation of card abuse after they found that one of …

Swiss blockchain identity network Concordium has hired former Danish prime minister and NATO secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen as a strategic advisor, the company confirmed in a press release on March 20. The Concordium Foundation, the controlling entity behind the Concordium Network that launched a proof of concept in January, aims to tackle blockchain deployment in certain fields with Rasmussen’s expertise. The former politician currently heads Rasmussen Global, a consultancy firm active in diverse fields including democracy, transatlantic relations and security policy. “Given the enormous scope and far-reaching potential of the Concordium Network, it is essential for the Concordium Foundation …