Top EU Official Calls for Global Crypto Agreement

Europe and the U.S. should work together to limit "significant risks" to investors and the environment, Mairead McGuinness said.

AccessTimeIconMay 2, 2022 at 2:33 p.m. UTC
Updated May 11, 2023 at 6:31 p.m. UTC
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The European Union's financial services commissioner, Mairead McGuinness, has called for a new "global agreement on crypto" to protect investors and limit the environmental impact of bitcoin (BTC) mining.

  • McGuinness, the EU's most senior financial-services official, said she wanted to ensure "no product remains unregulated," and warned of risks like sanctions evasion and financial instability, writing in The Hill.
  • The EU is in the closing stages of passing new laws to regulate cryptocurrencies, including the Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA), and recently came close to heavily restricting the energy-intensive proof of work technology that underpins bitcoin.
  • Finance ministers from major jurisdictions warned of the risk of a regulatory gap back in February.

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Jack Schickler

Jack Schickler was a CoinDesk reporter focused on crypto regulations, based in Brussels, Belgium. He doesn’t own any crypto.


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