The European Union Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union, Valdis Dombrovskis is still insisting on regulation of cryptocurrency worldwide and threatened, “[Bitcoin] is a global phenomenon and it’s important there is an international follow-up at the global level. We do not exclude the possibility to move ahead (by regulating cryptocurrencies) at the EU level if we see, for example, risks emerging but no clear international response emerging.”
At a recent EU commission on cryptocurrencies Mr Dombrovskis said the agency, “aims to ensure investor protection, market integrity and financial stability while taking full advantage of the new technological developments,” Mr. Dombrovskis urged the roundtable to follow up on an existing Franco-German letter concerned with crypto regulation. “Crypto-asset markets are global, with worldwide transactions between investors, consumers and intermediaries,” he said. “On its own, Europe represents only a small share of global cryptocurrency trading, so we need to work together with our partners in the G20 and international standard-setters.” This is somewhat of a last ditch effort to get global regulations imposed on cryptocurrencies using money laundering as an excuse. It seems to be overlooked that money laundering was not invented withy cryptocurrency but has actually been around for many years. According to Quartz Media, between 2010 and 2014, at least $20.8 billion was laundered out of Russia, funnelled into banks in Moldova and Latvia, and spread from there into 96 countries across the world. The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), which unearthed the scheme in 2014, dubbed it “the Russian Laundromat.” One could ask all 732 banks established to have been involved in money laundering, including giants like HSBC, Bank of China, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Citibank, and Royal Bank of Scotland about money laundering. Britain’s HSBC, for example, has been one of the worst receiving $545 million in laundered funds. Current regulations the EU want to impose on cryptocurrency have not stopped money laundering in banking. One wonders what the real reason for imposing global regulations on bitcoin is, especially as so many countries are now begining to accept bitcoin. Could it be more about loss of control and revenue? After all, there is a lot of money to be made in money laundering.
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