Harmonising Cryptocurrency Regulation in Europe: Opportunities for Preventing Illicit Transactions

Benson, Vladlena, Adamyk, Bogdan, Chinnaswamy, Anitha and Adamyk, Oksana (2024). Harmonising Cryptocurrency Regulation in Europe: Opportunities for Preventing Illicit Transactions. European Journal of Law and Economics, 57 (1-2), pp. 37-61.

Abstract

This study focuses on the analysis of cryptocurrency regulatory developments in Europe. The aim is to review national crypto-legislation in Europe and the EU's latest initiative to create designated regulatory instruments for the crypto-economy. This study assessed whether the European Union's Regulation on Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) would have the intended effect. Drawing on the results of a survey of crypto experts from five European countries, this study evaluated the effectiveness of current regulation across Europe and how it can be improved to reduce financial crimes. The findings show that a unified national legal framework for regulating transactions with crypto assets does not exist in European countries. Current crypto regulations are dictated by anti-money laundering recommendations. This study provides suggestions for improving MiCA regulation. The article offers recommendations for an international regulatory standard for crypto assets and insights for increasing efficiency in regulating DeFi, NFTs, and smart contracts.

Publication DOI:	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10657-024-09797-w
Divisions:	College of Business and Social Sciences > Aston Business School > Cyber Security Innovation (CSI) Research Centre College of Business and Social Sciences > Aston Business School > Operations & Information Management College of Business and Social Sciences College of Business and Social Sciences > Aston Business School Aston University (General)
Funding Information:	This research received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Programme under Grant Agreement 101022004 – TRACE Project – https://trace-illicit-money-flows.eu
Additional Information:	Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Blockchain,Cryptocurrency,Decentralised finance,G18,K20,Non-fungible tokens,Regulation,Smart contract,Economics and Econometrics,Law,Business and International Management
Publication ISSN:	0929-1261
Last Modified:	18 Nov 2024 08:49
Date Deposited:	19 Feb 2024 13:53
Full Text Link:
Related URLs:	https://link.sp ... 657-024-09797-w (Publisher URL) http://www.scop ... tnerID=8YFLogxK (Scopus URL)
PURE Output Type:	Article
Published Date:	2024-04
Published Online Date:	2024-03-04
Accepted Date:	2024-02-06
Authors:	Benson, Vladlena ( 0000-0001-5940-0525) Adamyk, Bogdan ( 0000-0001-5136-3854) Chinnaswamy, Anitha ( 0000-0002-3817-4239) Adamyk, Oksana