Chair of EU Parliament’s Committee on Budgets Calls for Crypto Ban Amid Banking Turmoil – Regulation Bitcoin News

A Euro­pean law­mak­er has urged author­i­ties to impose a ban on cryp­tocur­ren­cies cit­ing the cur­rent cri­sis in the bank­ing sec­tor as a rea­son. Johan Van Overtveldt, for­mer finance min­is­ter of Bel­gium, believes these assets bring no eco­nom­ic or social value.

Belgium’s Ex-Finance Minister Suggests Ban on Decentralized Digital Currencies

Mem­ber of the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment, Johan Van Overtveldt, has insist­ed that gov­ern­ments should pro­hib­it cryp­tocur­ren­cies like bit­coin. His call comes amid a cri­sis sparked by the fail­ure of sev­er­al bank­ing insti­tu­tions, includ­ing two cryp­to-friend­ly banks in the U.S.

“Anoth­er les­son to be learned from the cur­rent bank­ing com­mo­tion. Enforce a strict ban on cryp­tocur­ren­cies,” the law­mak­er, who has pre­vi­ous­ly praised blockchain tech­nol­o­gy, tweet­ed on Fri­day. “Spec­u­la­tive poi­son and no eco­nom­ic or social added val­ue. If a gov­ern­ment bans drugs, it should also ban cryp­tos,” he argued.

Nog een les te trekken uit de huidi­ge bankcom­motie. Leg een strikt ver­bod op cryp­tocur­ren­cies op. Spec­u­latief gif en geen enkele economis­che- of sociale toegevoegde waarde. Als een over­heid drugs ver­biedt, moet ze ook crypto’s verbieden.

— Johan Van Overtveldt (@jvanovertveldt) March 17, 2023

Van Overtveldt is a Bel­gian jour­nal­ist and politi­cian from the New Flem­ish Alliance (N‑VA) par­ty, who served as his country’s min­is­ter of finance between 2014 and 2018, in the gov­ern­ment of Prime Min­is­ter Charles Michel.

He was elect­ed to the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment in 2019 where he has been chair­ing the Com­mit­tee on Bud­gets and rep­re­sents the Euro­pean Con­ser­v­a­tives and Reformists (ECR) group in the Com­mit­tee on Eco­nom­ic and Mon­e­tary Affairs (ECON).

ECR is a soft Euroscep­tic, anti-fed­er­al­ist polit­i­cal group in the EU’s leg­is­la­ture. Free enter­prise, min­i­mal reg­u­la­tion, low­er tax­a­tion, along with “small gov­ern­ment as the ulti­mate cat­a­lysts for indi­vid­ual free­dom and per­son­al and nation­al pros­per­i­ty” are among its found­ing principles.

Overtveldt’s state­ment regard­ing cryp­tocur­ren­cies fol­lows the col­lapse of three U.S. banks, two of which were involved in the cryp­to space, Sil­ver­gate Bank and Sil­i­con Val­ley Bank. The con­se­quences of these fail­ures reached Europe, affect­ing Cred­it Suisse, a major invest­ment bank on the Old Continent.

Europe is yet to com­pre­hen­sive­ly reg­u­late its cryp­to econ­o­my by enforc­ing a leg­isla­tive pack­age called Mar­kets in Cryp­to Assets (MiCA). EU insti­tu­tions and mem­ber states agreed on the pro­pos­al last sum­mer. It intro­duces rules for cryp­to ser­vice providers across the 27-strong bloc.

Do you think Johan Van Overtveldt has a rea­son to make a call for a cryp­to ban? Tell us in the com­ments sec­tion below. 

Lubomir Tassev 

Lubomir Tas­sev is a jour­nal­ist from tech-savvy East­ern Europe who likes Hitchens’s quote: “Being a writer is what I am, rather than what I do.” Besides cryp­to, blockchain and fin­tech, inter­na­tion­al pol­i­tics and eco­nom­ics are two oth­er sources of inspiration.

Image Cred­its: Shut­ter­stock, Pix­abay, Wiki Com­mons, Alexan­dros Michai­lidis / Shutterstock.com