Exploring the dynamic relationships between cryptocurrencies and other financial assets

(1) Whereas the objectives of the Community, as laid down in the Treaty, as amended by the Treaty on European Union, include creating an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe, fostering closer relations between the States belonging to the Community, ensuring economic and social progress by common action to eliminate the barriers which divide Europe, encouraging the constant improvement of the living conditions of its peoples, preserving and strengthening peace and liberty and promoting democracy on the basis of the fundamental rights recognized in the constitution and laws of the Member States and in the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms;

Some Preliminary Comments on the DIRECTIVE 95/46/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data.

Cryptocurrencies as a financial asset: A systematic analysis

Initial coin offerings (ICOs) have emerged as a new mechanism for entrepreneurial finance, with parallels to initial public offerings, venture capital, and pre-sale crowdfunding. In a sample of more than 1,500 ICOs that collectively raise $12.9 billion, we examine which issuer and ICO characteristics predict successful real outcomes (increasing issuer employment and avoiding enterprise failure). Success is associated with disclosure, credible commitment to the project, and quality signals. An instrumental variables analysis finds that ICO token exchange listing causes higher future employment, indicating that access to token liquidity has important real consequences for the enterprise.

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Initial coin offerings: Financing growth with cryptocurrency token sales

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Initial Coin Offerings: Financing Growth with Cryptocurrency Token Sales

Virtual currencies under EU anti-money laundering law

Mobile payments are on the rise, as are virtual currencies emitted by private market players or by automated decentralized systems. The Payment Services Directive and E-money Directive form the legal framework for protecting consumers in transactions with payment services and e-money providers. However, the unclear scope of applicability of that legal framework could lead to legal uncertainty. Moreover, evolutions in the market, such as Bitcoin, are excluded from its scope. The European Commission has proposed a new framework, which will be analysed to establish whether it can bring more legal certainty to the scope of application of this legal framework.

Between Bitcoins and mobile payments: will the European Commission’s new proposal provide more legal certainty?

The ITS Directive: More than a timeframe with privacy concerns and a means for access to public data for digital road maps?

The research looked at which third party payment providers (TPP’s) are covered by the PSD2 and AMLD4 directives, the consequences thereof, as well as to what extent such coverage goes; and sought to analyse the potential for the regulation of cryptocurrency in terms of combatting money laundering and terrorist financing. TPP’s gain possession of a significant amount of sensitive information, for instance by providing a gateway from which consumers log in to their bank accounts using their unique identifiers and credentials. As a result, these entities are drawing increasingly more attention from legislators and regulators.Under the framework of the PSD2, TPP’s will be subject to stringent regulatory standards similar to those placed on traditional payment service providers under the PSD. In the US, regulation of TPP’s must be assessed on a state-by-state basis. In Florida, for instance, they can be considered as money transmitters, thus putting them under that regulation, as well as the federal Bank Secrecy Act. In Asia, the number of TPP’s has grown significantly over the past years. In China, these actors are regulated by the People’s Bank of China, and are subjected to a number of requirements similar to those found in the EU, such as minimum capital requirements and anti-money laundering rules.Another notable development is that of alternative payment methods – a prime example here are cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin. The bitcoin ecosystem is decentralized, meaning that no single entity controls the system. Currently, there exists no convincing arguments to consider virtual currencies as regulated under the EU’s Payment Services Directive or the Second E-money Directive. While the PSD2 does introduce new terminology and significantly amended scope exemptions compared to the original Payment Services Directive, there is no wider inclusion of virtual currencies under its scope. A similar argument can be made for the recently adopted AMLD4, where virtual currencies have been omitted from its scope despite earlier signs that this development may be included. The researchers conclude their paper with several public and private sector recommendations.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID2665973_code1914406.pdf?abstractid=2665973&mirid=1&type=2

The evolution of third party payment providers and cryptocurrencies under the EU's upcoming PSD2 and AMLD4

Much has been written already about virtual currencies primarily serving as means of payment, such as bitcoin. However, it is becoming clear that the success of such virtual currencies on the payme...

Niels Vandezande

Papers

Virtual currencies under EU anti-money laundering law

Between Bitcoins and mobile payments: will the European Commission’s new proposal provide more legal certainty?

The ITS Directive: More than a timeframe with privacy concerns and a means for access to public data for digital road maps?

The evolution of third party payment providers and cryptocurrencies under the EU's upcoming PSD2 and AMLD4

Regulating initial coin offerings and DAO tokens under the EU’s financial instruments framework