In a novel address at the University of California Berkley published on Wednesday, Olli Rehn, governor of the Bank of Finland, touted the possibility of a digital euro centralized bank digital currency (CBDC) functioning in tandem with private fintech solutions to facilitate the cross-border payment of services across Europe. The European Central Bank's (ECB) investigation into the plausibility of the digital euro began in late 2021 and is scheduled to conclude in October 2023. Rehn outlined the utility of the experimental digital euro, stating: "A digital euro would give people an additional choice about how to pay and would make …

Last week, the United States Federal Reserve Board turned its eye to banks and crypto, making (or promising to make) several clarifications, one of them pretty long-awaited. It announced that the final version of guidelines for reserve banks to access Reserve Bank master accounts and services is ready. For crypto, these guidelines hold a prospect of “the most stringent review,” to which non-federally insured institutions that do not have a holding company subject to Fed oversight would be exposed. It is still unclear whether the crypto banks will finally get access to master accounts under the new guidelines and how …

The European Central Bank (ECB) says the introduction of digital cash in the form of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) appears to be the "only solution" that will guarantee a "smooth continuation" of the current monetary system. The comments were made as part of an ECB Working Paper Series, which was published in August, discussing monetary policy and financial stability as it relates to CBDCs — gathering insights from 150 academic papers on the subject. The paper began with the observation that interest in “the economics of money and payments” has increased dramatically in the past 15 years and expanded …

The European Central Bank, or ECB, laid the foundation for the criteria it would be considering when harmonizing the licensing requirements for crypto in Europe. In a Wednesday statement, the ECB’s banking supervision division said it would be taking steps to regulate digital assets given “national frameworks governing crypto-assets diverge quite extensively” and seemingly differing approaches to harmonization following the passage of the Markets in Crypto-Assets, or MiCA, and the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision issuing guidelines for banks’ exposure to crypto. The ECB said it would apply criteria from the Capital Requirements Directive — in effect since 2013 — …

Amid the soaring inflation, the European Central Bank (ECB) has found time to sum up its concerns about the “significant carbon footprint” of Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies, which require vast amounts of computational power. ECB published the report titled “Mining the environment — is climate risk priced into crypto-assets?” on July 12. In the report, the ECB research group reinforces the environmental narrative about the battle of protocols, where the proof-of-work (PoW) concept represents a threat to the planet. In contrast, the proof-of-stake (PoS) is the only sustainable crypto option, experts argue. The article compares the amount of consumed …

The first phase of experiments with a wholesale digital euro has been completed, and Phase 2 experiments will begin this year, Banque de France governor François Villeroy de Galhau said Tuesday. Four or five new experiments are expected to be launched. Speaking at the Paris Europlace International Finance Forum, the French central banker summed up the European Union’s achievements in crypto-asset regulation under the French presidency, mentioning the Transfer Fund Regulation (Travel Rule) and Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA), specifically. The Eurosystem is looking at the scope and design of a digital euro central bank digital currency (CBDC). The main rationale …

The European Central Bank (ECB) has released a report analyzing the growth of the cryptocurrency market over the past decade and the risks it poses to the existing financial system. A section of the report dedicated to stablecoins discussed the central role that it plays in the current ecosystem. Stablecoins are increasingly used to interlink various blockchain networks and play a critical role in offering liquidity to the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem. The report further analyzed whether these stablecoins could find a place in the traditional financial system, but concluded that a lack of regulatory oversight added to the recent …

The European Central Bank, or ECB, will reportedly be preparing to implement a new law by warning European Union member states about the necessity of harmonizing regulations for crypto. According to a Sunday report from the Financial Times, the ECB was concerned about the possible regulatory overlap between respective central banks in the EU and crypto companies as officials prepare to implement the Markets in Crypto-Assets, or MiCA, framework. The European Parliament, European Commission and European Council reached an agreement on June 30 to bring crypto issuers and service providers within their jurisdictional control under a single regulatory framework. Regulators …

Bitcoin (BTC) has been trying to break out of a descending trend for the past week and the first attempt on June 16 failed to break the $22,600 resistance. The second attempt at $21,400 on June 21 was followed by an 8% price correction. After two failed breakouts, the price currently trades below $20,000 and raises questions on whether $17,600 was really the bottom. The longer it takes for BTC to break from this bearish pattern, the stronger the resistance line becomes and traders are following the trend closely. That is precisely why it’s important for bulls to show strength …

A week after the major American crypto lending platform Celsius had to freeze the withdrawal option for its users, European Central Bank (ECB) president Christine Lagarde voiced her conviction on the necessity of tighter scrutiny over this part of the crypto market. During a testimony before the European Parliament on Monday, Lagarde expressed her thoughts not only about the looming inflation in Europe and around the globe but also about the increasing activities of crypto-asset staking and lending. In Lagarde’s opinion, this trend demands additional regulatory efforts from the European Union. Referring to the major regulatory package making its way …

Fabio Panetta, an executive board member of the European Central Bank, or ECB, proposed the central bank limit the total holdings of a digital euro in an effort to prevent the digital currency from being used as a form of investment. In a Wednesday speech for the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament, Panetta hinted the ECB could cap the number of digital euros between 1 and 1.5 trillion tokens. The proposed limit would be part of an effort aiming to disincentivize residents from HODLing tokens as an investment like crypto assets, with “with larger holdings …

On Tuesday, the European Central Bank, or ECB, published the results of a new survey conducted in six eurozone areas: the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Belgium, France and Germany. Together, approximately 10% of respondents from the surveyed countries said they own cryptocurrencies. Out of this group, only 6% of respondents said they own digital assets worth more than 30,000 euros ($32,037). Meanwhile, 37% of respondents said they owned up to 999 euros ($1066) in crypto. Across all of the countries surveyed, investors in the fifth income quintile (or the wealthiest 20% of the population) consistently had the highest proportion of cryptocurrency …