BTC ban averted? EU Parliament suspends MiCA decision

A possible ban of Proof-of-Work-based cryptocurrencies like BTC by the EU Parliament has made waves in the crypto space. Now the House of Representatives has reacted. The chairman of the responsible committee for economy and currency (ECON) Stefan Berger (CDU) has on Twitter voiced. In it, the European politician announces the cancellation of the vote on the MiCA draft in the EU Parliament. The vote was originally scheduled for February 28th. A new date has not yet been set.

For him, the discussion about MiCA indicates that “individual passages of the draft report can be misinterpreted and understood as a POW ban”. Under these circumstances, he considers a vote by the EU Parliament to be “fatal”. The draft should not be “misinterpreted” as a BTC ban, writes Berger.

So far, the BTC draft has stated that starting January 1, 2025, crypto-asset providers will not be allowed to provide services that are in any way related to crypto-assets that rely on environmentally unsustainable consensus mechanisms. “Specifically, they shall not facilitate the purchase or trading of such crypto-assets and shall not provide custody services for such crypto-assets,” the paragraph continues.

Berger wants to create “clear facts” about BTC

Berger told BTC-ECHO that the group representatives of the Social Democrats, the Greens and the Left were the main drivers of the proposal. After the clear reactions, the politician now sees the need “to resume talks and negotiations with the parliamentary groups on this topic and to create clear facts on the question of PoW.”

It remains to be seen what the outcome of the talks will be. A de facto ban on proof-of-work-based cryptocurrencies such as BTC should therefore be off the table for the time being.