Europe

The Secretary-General of Amnesty International, Anges Callamard, released a statement on Nov. 27 in response to three European Union member states pushing back on regulating artificial intelligence (AI) models. France, Germany and Italy reached an agreement that included not adopting ...

IBM announced the completed installation of a 127-qubit quantum computing system at the University of Tokyo on Nov. 27. According to the company, this marks the arrival of the first “utility-scale” quantum system in the region.  ...

The Data Act — a contentious piece of European Union legislation that includes a clause requiring the ability to terminate smart contracts — has been approved by the European Parliament. If introduced, the legislation will require a smart contract to have a “kill switch.”In a Nov. 9 p ...

European Central Bank (ECB) president and prominent Bitcoin (BTC) critic Christine Lagarde has shared a family story about unsuccessful cryptocurrency investments, according to a report from Reuters.Lagarde told students at a town hall in Frankfurt on Nov. 24 that her son lost “almost all ...

The European Union’s banking regulator, the European Banking Authority (EBA), wants to update existing anti-money laundering rules and focus on combatting the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) for crypto providers. In a consultation paper published on Nov. 24, the EBA explains that cur ...

The saga of Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon continues to unfold, with a court in Montenegro approving his extradition to either South Korea or the United States.The High Court of Podgorica has determined the legal requirements for Kwon’s extradition, according to an official statement po ...

A group of businesses and tech companies have issued a joint letter to European Union regulators warning against over-policing powerful artificial intelligence (AI) systems at the expense of innovation. The letter, which was sent on Nov. 23 and undersigned by 33 companies working ...

The collapse of FTX in 2022 and Binance’s recent $4.3 billion settlement with U.S. authorities provide a strong argument for the provisions of the European Union’s markets in crypto-assets (MiCA) legislation, a European Commission official said in an interview.Ivan Keller, policy officer f ...

The Italian Data Protection Authority, a local privacy regulator, announced the launch of a “fact-finding” investigation on Nov. 22, in which it will look into the practice of data gathering to train artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms.The investigation aims to verify the adoption of a ...

Belgium plans to accelerate the development of a European blockchain infrastructure during its presidency of the EU Council in early 2024, according to the goveernm. The proposal aims to facilitate the secure storage of official documents like driving licenses and property titles. The ...

Artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain are emerging digital technologies that have captured the public imagination but also raised serious concerns.So it bears asking: Can AI and blockchain be integrated in a way that benefits humanity? There are reasons to think so. As far bac ...

Fourteen Ukrainian officials received advanced training on investigating new-age financial crimes in a training course held from Nov. 14 to Nov. 17 in Vienna.According to a report released by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSEC), the select supervisory and l ...

European digital asset management firm CoinShares secured the exclusive option to acquire the exchange-traded fund (ETF) unit of its United States competitor Valkyrie Investments, including the Valkyrie Bitcoin Fund that’s awaiting approval in the U.S.CoinShares said on Nov. 17 that ...

The European Union has been actively preparing for what it envisions as the future of money. Over the last year, it finalized its landmark comprehensive crypto legislation, the Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation (MiCA), which is due to take effect in 2024, after closing its second consultat ...

The European Parliament has voted to approve the Data Act — controversial legislation that includes a stipulation necessitating smart contracts have the ability to be terminated.In a Nov. 9 press release, the parliament said the legislation passed 481 votes to 31 against. To become law, it ...

Crypto exchange OPNX has obtained a virtual asset service provider license (VASP) in Lithuania, allowing it to provide spot crypto exchange services throughout the European Union, according to a Nov. 8 announcement seen by Cointelegraph.OPNX trading interface. Source: OPNXThe announcement ...

The aim of the new liquidity guidelines is to ensure that the stablecoin can be quickly redeemed even during turmoil market conditions to avoid the risk of any bank runs and contagion in a crisis situation.Under the proposed liquidity guidelines, stablecoin issuers must offer any stablecoi ...

HSBC has partnered with Ripple-owned tech firm, Metaco, to integrate its institutional platform Harmonize with HSBC’s new custody service for digital assets, the firm announced on Nov. 8.The bank expects to roll out the new digital asset custody service in 2024, complementing its digital a ...

Trading platform Robinhood has revealed its intentions to expand into Europe in the coming weeks. The company is exploring establishing brokerage operations in the United Kingdom. It made this decision known on Tuesday, Nov 7.The commission-free trading app made this announcement as it rev ...

European cryptocurrency banking platform Bitwala, formerly known as Nuri, is coming back after ceasing operations and returning customer funds last year.Bitwala is relaunching operations under its original name, in partnership with the support of the banking infrastructure company known as ...

As the Bank of Spain embraces the potential adoption of a digital euro, the country’s population doesn’t appear to have the same strong appetite for the European Central Bank’s digital currency project. This emerges from the results of a survey published by the Bank of Spain enti ...

Spanish Ministry of Economy and Digital Transformation reported that the first comprehensive European Union crypto framework, the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) Act, will come into force on the national level in December 2025.As follows from the release published by the Ministry on Oct. 2 ...

For the most part, nonfungible tokens (NFTs) have two primary use cases: Buying and selling digital products (digital art, virtual fashion items) and building digital communities (exclusive memberships, access to events). These use cases can be easily adopted by brands and companies, ...

The Central Bank of Spain joined a chorus of European banking institutions, preparing their customers for all the benefits of the “digital euro.” The Bank of Spain last week published a short text explaining the nature and uses of the European Union’s potential central bank digital currency (CBDC ...

Greek Prime Minister Kryiakos Mitsotakis announced the establishment of an advisory committee to create a national strategy for artificial intelligence (AI) in Greece on Oct. 19.The Greek government said the “exponential pace” of AI development has created the necessity for an advisory com ...

Binance Visa debit card services will close down in the European Economic Area (EEA) on December 20, according to an announcement by the cryptocurrency exchange on Oct. 20. Binance accounts will be unaffected.According to a Binance letter to customers posted online, the Binance card issuer ...

On Oct. 18, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) and the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) issued a joint opinion statement on the regulation of “digital euro,” proposed by the European Commission in July 2023. The regulators made several recommendations to enhance the personal data ...

Crypto exchange Binance has announced it has onboarded new partners to handle euro deposits and withdrawals, months after losing its previous fiat partner PaySafe in September. In an Oct. 19 statement, Binance announced that it had signed agreements with new fiat partners for euro pay ...

U.S. surveillance and facial recognition firm Clearview AI has won a court appeal in the United Kingdom after being accused of alleged infractions related to the U.K’s general data protection regulation (GDPR). Originally, the company was fined nearly $10 million for breaches of the U ...

Bank of Finland (BOF) is coordinating the creation of a Finnish instant payment solution compatible with European standards. BOF board member and member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) Tuomas Välimäki made the announcement on Oct. 19. Välimäki revealed that ...

The eighth iteration of the Directive on Administrative Cooperation (DAC8), a cryptocurrency tax reporting rule, was formally adopted by the Council of the European Union on Oct. 17. The regulation will enter into force after it's published in the Official Journal of the EU. DAC was s ...

Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) need a comprehensive regulatory framework if they are to make a place in the future of the financial sector, suggests the European Central Bank (ECB) occasional paper (OP).The OP “The future of DAOs in finance - in need of legal status,&r ...

Cryptocurrency investors in Europe are not yet protected under European Union cryptocurrency asset market rules and it will take some time for the protections to take effect.Europe’s securities regulator, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), on Oct. 17 issued a statement a ...

Last week, the FTX court saga had elements of a TV drama, with Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried’s former business associate and girlfriend, Caroline Ellison, sharing some shocking stories about SBF’s rule over the company. Ellison admitted to fraud during her time as CEO at Alameda under Bankman-Fried’s d ...

The United Nations and the Dutch government have unveiled plans to establish a framework for the ethical oversight of artificial intelligence (AI). The project, titled "Supervising AI by Competent Authorities," is a collaboration between the Dutch Authority for Digital Infrastructure and UNESCO (the ...

Fintech innovations and emerging technologies have been rapidly evolving worldwide, prompting global regulators to adapt and establish regulatory frameworks. In this landscape, Latvia, a small Baltic country neighboring Estonia and Lithuania, has been quietly joining the efforts to understand and re ...

On this week's episode of “Macro Markets,” Cointelegraph analyst Marcel Pechman delves into a thought-provoking discussion on the United States Federal Reserve’s financial woes. Pechman opens by highlighting how the Fed is grappling with staggering losses and emphasizes a fundamental macroec ...

Coinbase has flagged several countries outside the United States where it intends to focus its operations in the near term, citing their comparatively clearer crypto laws.In a Sep. 6 blog post, Coinbase’s international business VP, Nana Murugesan and international policy VP, Tom Duff ...

The European Union's financial services chief, Mairead McGuinness, believes there’s no reason to rush with the digital euro until after the next European elections in June 2024. In her opinion, the EU’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) project should be approached “quietly and slowly” by the ...

The European Central Bank (ECB) is quite happy with the European Commission's (EC) legislative proposals for the digital euro. ECB executive board member Fabio Panetta told the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs in a speech on Sept. 4 that the proposals “ ...

Decentralized finance (DeFi) gave birth to a wide range of financial services that aim to challenge what traditional finance (TradFi) offers. However, the user experience persists as a major issue hindering the widespread adoption of DeFi apps and solutions. For years, the DeFi ecosystem has been ...

IBM has some ideas about what it will take to make the digital euro a success, which it shared in a recent blog post. It suggested five items for designers to help the European Central Bank digital currency “enter the highly competitive, multifaceted, and heterogeneous payments landscape in ...

While United States regulators such as Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler make bad-faith claims that “there’s been clarity for years” when it comes to cryptocurrency, the European Union took real action in April when it passed the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulatory fram ...

The first-ever spot Bitcoin ETF, launched on the European market, has been defined as an Article 8 fund by its issuer firm, London-based Jacobi Asset Management. Funds included under Article 8 of the European Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SDFR) are those that “promote environmental a ...

On this week’s episode of Macro Markets, Cointelegraph analyst and writer Marcel Pechman explores the United States debt downgrade by Fitch Ratings. According to Pechman, this change signaled diminished confidence in the U.S. government’s ability to handle its fiscal responsibilities.The d ...

In the latest episode of Macro Markets, Cointelegraph analyst Marcel Pechman discusses the recession in Germany, Europe’s largest economy. According to a recent headline in The Wall Street Journal, “Germany is dragging down Europe’s economy.“ The article explains how the country heavily depends o ...

An open letter from GitHub, Hugging Face, Creative Commons and other tech firms are calling the European Union to ease upcoming rules for open-source artificial intelligence models.The letter urges policymakers to review some of the provisions of the EU's Artificial Intelligence Act, claim ...

On July 11, the European Commission formally adopted its new strategy on Web4 and virtual worlds with the aim of ensuring “an open, secure, trustworthy, fair and inclusive digital environment” for European Union citizens. The strategy is based on four main pillars, revolving around th ...

The European Union has been vocal about its place in the rapidly expanding ecosystem of emerging technologies. It has been a leader in establishing clear crypto regulations with its long-awaited Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework signed into law in late May. The EU has als ...

The future is bright for euro-denominated stablecoins, according to Patrick Hansen, European Union strategy and policy director at Circle. The United States dollar may preserve its first-mover advantage, but euro stablecoins will see increasing real-world use cases emerge to lift them above thei ...

The European Commission has tipped “extended reality” — technology that enables people to interact with virtual worlds — to create as many as 860,000 jobs in Europe by 2025. Extended reality or XR is an umbrella term for immersive technologies including virtual ...

Stablecoin use could be "stifled" by daily transaction caps in the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) legislation, with some calling for the framework to be revised.On May 31, MiCA was signed into law which paved the way for the world’s first regulatory guidance on cryp ...

From thumbs-ups from friendly strangers to midnight police searches, a Bitcoin-themed van continues a whirlwind tour around Europe.Ariel Aguilar has been behind the wheel of Bitcoin (BTC) promotion efforts, driving across Europe in a BTC-themed van called La Bitcoineta. Speaking to Cointel ...

The first batch of blockchain use cases to debut in Europe's regulatory sandbox was formally introduced on July 3, following a long wait and nearly 90 applications received in April. First disclosed in 2020, the initiative aims to bridge the regulatory gap between European nations and crypto comp ...

European Union (EU) lawmakers have agreed to move ahead with the controversial European Data Act, which has previously drawn criticism from the crypto community. The act, aimed at encouraging greater use of data resources to train algorithms, would update the EU’s rules on smart contracts to incl ...

Privacy advocates scored a big win in June with Binance’s announcement that it was backtracking on a decision to delist privacy coins for users in a number of European countries.As a result of the move, users in Italy, Poland, Spain and France will be permitted to continue trading tokens i ...

CACEIS Bank, the asset servicing arm of Crédit Agricole and Santander, has received a crypto custody license in France, according to the regulator’s website on June 20. CACEIS claims to be a European leader in asset servicing, offering services from clearing and fund administrati ...

The Faroe Islands have issued a new series of digital “crypto stamps,” with a digital copy stored on the blockchain as a nonfungible token (NFT) while still serving as actual postage. On June 23, the Posta Faroe Islands’ official website for issuing postage announced that the aut ...

Consumer protection groups from the European Union (EU) have urged regulators to conduct investigations on artificial intelligence (AI) models behind popular chatbots. According to a report from the AP on Tuesday, 13 watchdog groups issued a warning to their national consumer, data pr ...

Slovakia will codify the right to use cash as a method of payment after a vote to amend the nation’s constitution passed in parliament on June 15. The new legislation was sponsored by the Sme Rodina party, also known as the “We Are Family” party, and was reportedly drafted as a precau ...

Once again, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) became the week’s headliner. Its intention to freeze the entirety of Binance.US’s assets got a reality check from U.S. district court Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who advised the regulator and the crypto exchange to negotiate a d ...

Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon told a Montenegro court that he wasn’t aware the passport he was traveling with was allegedly forged and instead pinned the blame on a Chinese-named agency.In a June 17 report from South Korean news outlet Segye Ilbo, Kwon told the Montenegrin Basic Cou ...

The European Union signed the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulations into law on May 31, making way for the landmark regulatory guidance on crypto assets and service providers to come into effect.First drafted in 2020, the EU’s regulatory package will govern the issuance and sco ...

The Bitcoin (BTC) community in Europe continues to be a voice in combatting social problems affecting the continent, according to podcast host Erik Dale.The founder and CEO of the Northern Lightning conferences, which hosts several Bitcoin events across Europe, believes the continent’s Bit ...

Web3, the latest iteration of the internet that leverages the power of decentralization, is very much about building trustless ecosystems that naturally present credible services to its communities. Trust is a fundamental pillar of Web3. Communities should feel safe when it comes to their ...

Digital asset infrastructure provider Taurus is stepping up its tokenization efforts in Europe through a full integration with the Polygon blockchain, the company announced on June 2. The move will allow its clients to automatically issue digital securities. Taurus claims to have over ...

The European crypto scene has gained significant traction over the past few years, with a surge in the interest in and adoption of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. While the crypto industry is often associated with decentralization, innovation and financial freedom, it is not immune to ...