💊 Crypto regulation is coming to Europe
GM. Welcome to Web3 pills, the daily crypto newsletter that’s here to remind you to buy the dip…not financial advice though.
Here are your 💊’s for today:
Crypto regulation is coming to Europe
Google Cloud to let users pay with crypto
Trending stories
NFT of the day
CRYPTO REGULATION IS COMING TO EUROPE
This week there were a number of moves made across Europe that look to increase crypto regulation across Europe. First it was the EU lawmakers voting 28 to 1 in favor of the Markets in Crypto Assets bill (MiCA) which is set to introduce new rules around the supervision, consumer protection and environmental safeguards for crypto assets.
The bill asserted that MiCA will cover all crypto assets “which are not regulated by existing financial services legislation”. The determination of what is and isn’t a crypto asset will be determined by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), including the classification of NFTs. Early indications suggest that NFTs that are fixed price (such as event tickets, in-game items) would not fall under the scope of MiCA, while NFTs that service as financial instruments will.
Reports were that the European crypto industry broadly welcomed the introduction of regulatory advancement. This likely has to do with the fact that many crypto businesses were operating under a high level of uncertainty, such as whether their business model would even be sustainable post-regulation. With the cards now on the table, these companies should theoretically have an idea of what laws they can expect to come into effect in the next 12 to 18 months.
On the topic of European countries, one of the most crypto-friendly countries seems to be making a sudden U-turn on it’s crypto policies. Portugal, was slowly beginning to turn into the crypto capital of Europe, due to it’s friendly tax policies towards crypto ( i.e. no capital gains tax). This has led to many top projects such as Solana, Near and others hosting major crypto events in the city. Not to mention, the influx of crypto traders and builders who had taken up residence there.
However, that may all be changing soon, as the Portuguese government has proposed a new tax policy to impose a short term capital gains tax of 28% starting in 2023. In addition, Portugal also intends to impose a 4% tax on free crypto transfers.
In my opinion, this is definitely a step in the wrong direction for Portugal. One of the most beautiful aspects to crypto is that it is borderless. With Portugal turning it’s back on crypto, look for other countries to recognize the arbitrage and move to attract crypto investors.
Portugal saw a large increase of 40% in immigration from 2011 to 2021, which certainly helped their economy. Spurning the fastest growing industry in the world is a surefire way to start to reverse this trend.
GOOGLE CLOUD TO LET USERS PAY WITH CRYPTO
Despite the market downturn, there continues to be promising signs of crypto adoption across industries. Earlier this morning, Google Cloud announced in a press release that it would begin accepting crypto payments for its cloud services early next year.
In order to facilitate these payments, it will be integrating with crypto exchange Coinbase, as well as using Coinbase’s custody service, Coinbase Prime.
The fact that one of the most valuable companies in the entire world is seeking to embrace crypto, should be viewed as a positive sign. There are many crypto projects out there that need cloud services that would prefer to pay in native crypto assets versus fiat. Any move towards the adoption of crypto in commerce, helps strengthen the utility of crypto assets.
However, as a deep Web3 supporter, it’s important that I caveat this with a word of caution. While there are many benefits to Google embracing crypto, there are also downsides as well. For instance, if Web3 companies all begin to rely on centralized tech companies for their cloud storage and services needs, it risks compromising the decentralized and permissionless nature of our entire ecosystem.
Rather than supporting Google, I would much rather see crypto companies embracing services such as Filecoin, IPFS, and Arweave. These companies are actually built with the core tenants of Web3 in mind. Let’s not help strengthen the tech monopolies, instead, we should be supporting our own.
TRENDING ARTICLES
[Coindesk] Coinbase Gets Singapore Digital Payment Token License: Coinbase joins Crypto.com and DBS Vickers as major institutions with a DPT license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
[Decrypt] Enormous Multi-Sig Transaction Briefly Crashes Bitcoin’s Lightning Network: A validation bug caused by a complex multi-sig transaction temporarily crashed LND, a popular implementation of Bitcoin’s Lightning Network.
[Blockworks] Dapper Labs NFT Wallet Restricts Russian Users After EU Sanctions: Russian users will no longer be able to buy, sell or gift NFTs via Dapper Labs’ custodial wallet, but the startup says they still own them
NFT OF THE DAY
One of the NFT collections making moves this bear market is the Kanpai Pandas. I like this collection because it is omni-chain, with NFTs already live on 7 chains (and an 8th chain coming soon).
The team has also been relentless executers, having already hosted awesome IRL events such as renting private suites at UFC and NFL games, as well as concerts like Bad Bunny and Diplo.
They’ve also done a fantastic job of extending their community into the digital space by hosting an online poker club and fantasy football league that is only open to holders.
At 12pm EST today, the team will be revealing the artwork for its “Infinity Collection”. The holders will also be airdropped WL passes for the final chain that is soon to be announced.
Disclaimer: I own a Kanpai Panda NFT on Arbitrum
