Thunderclap: Will Bitcoin be banned in Europe?
When the final compromise proposals of the Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCAR) were published for the vote in the responsible Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON) last week, the crypto market was suddenly thunderstruck: the new draft provides for a ban on crypto services related to the use of environmentally unsustainable consensus mechanisms such as Proof of Work (PoW) from 1 January 2025 – that is, also for trading Bitcoin or Ether. Could this see Bitcoin being banned in Europe? Discussions continue about the regulation of environmentally unsustainable consensus mechanisms.