As Italy considers raising taxes on cryptocurrencies from 26% to a whopping 42%, it may be a good time to freshen up on European crypto tax.

This handy chart outlines what main taxes a casual cryptocurrency owner will have to declare. As always, make sure to do your own research — these rates are subject to change at any time, and some countries require you to pay separate taxes on trades, mining, and more.

For bag holders looking to pay lower amounts of tax on crypto, Slovakia, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Greece, Malta, Hungary, and Lithuania offer the lowest tax rates in the EU at press time.

Meanwhile, countries like Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Germany, and Ireland demand the highest tax rates on crypto at press time.

Update October 17, 13:04 UTC: Figures have been revised for Luxembourg, Belgium, Czechia, and Malta.

Got a tip? Send us an email or ProtonMail. For more informed news, follow us on X, Instagram, Bluesky, and Google News, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

The post CHART: How bitcoin and crypto are taxed in the EU appeared first on Protos.

In an effort to minimize risks of contagion, the European Banking Authority (EBA) and other EU regulators have announced an investigation into banks’ links to non-bank entities, such as hedge funds, crypto, and private capital firms.

The EBA will probe how shadow banks, or non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs), can possibly affect lenders, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday. These entities hold almost half of the world’s financial assets, or about $218 trillion.

The EBA will work alongside the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) and the Financial Stability Board (FSB) to determine how disruptions by shadow banks could have knock-on effects on wider markets. The FSB oversees global financial stability.

According to the EBA’s chair José Manuel Campa, “We should be doing more and we are going to be doing more. We need to have an understanding of the whole underlying chain in NBFIs.

Read more: ECB says crypto regulation needed MiCA yesterday — it’ll take years to enact

Campa added that implementing minimum requirements of reporting could provide regulators with more data on banks’ exposure to non-banks.

“The first step in this situation is always getting information; it’s an obscure sector where the quality of data is not homogeneous,” the EBA chair explained (via FT).

The decision by watchdogs comes at the start of a promising year for EU crypto regulation, with stricter rules expected to come into effect following MiCA.

Got a tip? Send us an email or ProtonMail. For more informed news, follow us on X, Instagram, Bluesky, and Google News, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

The post EU finance watchdogs to probe bank ties to crypto appeared first on Protos.

Police in Ukraine are being taught by EU security experts how to tackle the rising threat of crypto crime in the country. 

The training offered by the European Union Advisory Mission (EUAM) provides intelligence officers from Lviv the tools and know-how to track the flow of crypto assets, identify participants of transactions, and improve their investigative methods.

As part of the training announcement, the Ukrainian Bureau of Economic Security (BEB) also detailed how the country has lost UAH 3 billion ($81 million) in taxes over the past 10 years through unregulated crypto exchanges. 

“Currently, Ukraine lacks an appropriate regulatory framework, crypto exchanges are not regulated, and relevant regulations on the specifics of taxation of transactions with virtual assets have not been adopted,” (via BEB). 

Members of the Security Service of Ukraine, the National Police, and the Prosecutor’s Office, amongst other official departments and international experts at the seminar, all discussed the availability of open-source information and online software that can help track and solve crypto-related crimes.

A senior advisor from the EUAM noted that “tracking and tracing assets of criminals using cryptocurrencies is an extremely complex process and requires constant professional development.”

Read more: Canadian police open applications for crypto and NFT storage solution

The head of Lviv’s BEB Territorial Department said, “The emergence of cryptocurrencies has become a challenge for law enforcement not only in Ukraine but also around the world. The main task of the BEB is to protect the economy and fight economic crime.” 

He added, “Knowledge and constant exchange of experience with international partners, experts, and law enforcement officers from other countries are important for us.”

Earlier this year, Canadian police also introduced the use of crypto-tracking software Chainalysis. They also published a contract request that sought developers who could create a digital asset storage system that could be utilized by officers confiscating and tracking crypto. 

Got a tip? Send us an email or ProtonMail. For more informed news, follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky, and Google News, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

The post EU teaches Ukraine police to track criminals and their crypto appeared first on Protos.

The EU Commission’s proposed MICA legislation that will introduce uniform regulatory standards for the crypto industry across EU countries was approved last week by a resounding majority by the European Parliament.

The legislation, which has been under discussion since 2021, will be sent to the European Council for final approval in the coming months.

The proposed law will introduce wide-reaching safeguards and regulations in an effort to protect clients and investors. Under the new legislation, crypto exchanges will have to hold clients’ funds and adequate capital buffers and won’t be able to invest or gamble with clients’ funds. Stablecoin issuers will have to prove to the regulator that their stablecoin is backed 1:1 with cash.

The regulations will also introduce comprehensive anti-money-laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) regulations and will place particular emphasis on transfers totaling €1,000 and above from self-hosted addresses.

Read more: European Central Bank says crypto is dead, but is it?

The regulations will take at least two years to be implemented in each EU member state, with the €1,000 rule coming into effect by 2025.

The European Commission is laying the groundwork for new legislation that will launch the digital Euro. The green light was given by the European Council earlier this month. The following day, the EU Commission issued its consultation process with relevant stakeholders which will end on June 16.

Payment industry specialists and providers, merchant and retail payments providers, payments regulators, and finance intelligence units are among the stakeholders expected to provide feedback to the Commission.

The European Central Bank (ECB) has long pronounced that it’s in favor of a digital euro and recently reiterated that European legislators need to work together on the legislation before it could launch.

The ECB believes that launching the digital euro will help Europe move closer to a widespread roll-out of digital payments. Last month, ECB President Christine Lagarde also remarked on the importance of introducing the digital euro as she encouraged lawmakers to speed up the process.

The EU will adopt the first-ever wide-reaching regulatory framework for the crypto industry and may also be one of the first major international institutions to adopt a digital currency. Despite the EU’s long and clunky legal process, Europe is ahead of the US in introducing a clear-set legal framework for crypto as the US still tries to figure out the direction for its legislation with long and detailed congressional hearings on the subject still ongoing.

Got a tip? Send us an email or ProtonMail. For more informed news, follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky, and Google News, or subscribe to our YouTube channel. 

The post Digital euro plan moves Europe further ahead of US on crypto regulation appeared first on Protos.

EU officials may be willing to let Proof of Work-powered Bitcoin go to the wall while protecting what they see as more sustainable cryptos such as Ethereum, according to recently-unearthed minutes from a European Commission meeting.

During the meeting, which took place in November last year, EU officials and a group of Swedish financial regulators discussed the negative environmental impact of Bitcoin’s Proof of Work (PoW) mechanism.

And the minutes, uncovered via a freedom of information request by German outlet netzpolitik.org, reveal that they even considered an outright ban on Bitcoin trading across the EU.

The uncovered documents also show that the European Commission is strongly in favor of protecting the world’s second-largest crypto, Ethereum.

Ethereum is in the process of a widely publicized move from PoW to the less energy-intensive Proof of Stake (PoS). This transition is known as ‘the Merge.’

A document dated February 22 shows the meeting notes between EU officials and Sweden’s financial supervisor and environmental agency. The partly-redacted pages include: “If Ethereum is able to shift, we could legitimately request the same from BTC. We need to ‘protect’ other crypto coins that are sustainable. Don’t see need to ‘protect’ the bitcoin community.”

Officials seemed so keen on PoS, they even wrote: “How would the disappearance of bitcoin affect consumers? Participants in BTC are fully aware of the volatility of the currency/investment risk. Do not need additional protection measures (our emphasis).”

It’s worth noting that just last month, the EU voted down a proposal that would have effectively banned the mining and trading of the most energy-intensive cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.

While an EU-wide blanket ban on Bitcoin mining sounds like a bold move, some suggest that it would actually have little or no effect on the digital currency’s environmental impact. Namely, because very little mining actually takes place in Europe.

In fact, it’s almost impossible to track exactly where Bitcoin is being mined. This is why some experts believe that targeting Bitcoin’s price is the only way to get it under control (lower price means less incentive to mine). And there are those who believe that the EU simply doesn’t understand enough about either Bitcoin or Ethereum to be making such a call.

After all, Bitcoin uses the amounts of energy it does because that’s what it needs to differentiate it from existing government-issued currencies. It enables Bitcoin to distribute coins fairly to anybody and to track and secure every transaction.

Given its unlimited supply, Ethereum proponents say it’s time for the network to evolve beyond PoW.

New York also has PoW in its sights

The EU isn’t alone in targeting PoW cryptocurrencies in an effort to protect the environment. Lawmakers in New York State are preparing to vote on a proposed bill that would place a two-year ban on the issuing or renewal of permits to fossil fuel-fired mining operations in the state.

Those who proposed the bill believe that such facilities are standing in the way of New York’s emissions targets. Specifically, its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40% in the next eight years.

These targets were outlined in the 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.

Read more: Core developer wants to fork Bitcoin for quantum resistance

Unsurprisingly, as with the EU’s proposals, many are skeptical about just how effective such a move would be. There are also concerns about how harmful it could be to the wider crypto industry.

For example, John Olsen, New York State lead for the Blockchain Association told CoinDesk: “A two-year mining ban sends a really bad message to the blockchain industry, to crypto companies, to Web 3 companies, that New York is saying ‘You’re not welcome here.’”

Follow us on Twitter for more informed news.

Out now: the first four episodes of our ongoing investigative podcast series Innovated: Blockchain City.

The post EU meeting notes show officials don’t understand how Bitcoin works appeared first on Protos.