Investing.com - Could Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies be banned in the EU following a vote expected today?
Fears about this weighed on Bitcoin over the weekend, causing the crypto to fall to around $37,500 on Sunday night.
Indeed, Bloomberg has revealed that a vote by the European Parliament's Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee is expected this Monday, 14 March 2022, and that the text to be voted on will require crypto-assets issued and/or traded in the EU to "be subject to minimum environmental sustainability standards and to put in place and maintain a phased rollout plan to ensure compliance".
The reference to environmental impact as well as the roll-out requirements was identified as last-minute changes introduced to limit, or even ban, the use of digital currencies that operate on a so-called "proof-of-work" consensus mechanism, on which Bitcoin is based.
This would mean that BTC, in order to avoid being excluded from the EU, would have to start the transition from "proof of work" to "proof of stake", as Ethereum has done, and at first sight this seems more or less impossible for BTC.
"The stakes of the vote are extremely high in the EU. That such a proposal has gone this far is extraordinarily worrying and unlikely to stand up to practical reality," said Jeremy Allaire, founder of Circle Pay, on Twitter.
Remember that an earlier version of the provision proposed a ban on proof-of-work crypto-currencies in the EU from January 2025. This provision was later dropped following criticism from crypto-currency advocates, before the amended version was reinstated in the latest draft.
Finally, it should be noted that once the Parliament has voted on the draft, it will move on to a trialogue, which is a formal round of negotiations between the European Commission, the Council and the Parliament.
The outcome of today's vote will therefore have to be watched very closely, but it should not be forgotten that further steps will be necessary afterwards for the ban on Bitcoin to start becoming a concrete risk.