The move follows, French Finance Minister’s initiative to ask his counterparts in the Group of 20 to consider joint regulation of Bitcoin. The concerns are shared by the Italian government, which is also open to discussing regulation, while the European Union is bringing in rules backed by the UK that would apply to Bitcoin. Signs of growing European concern came as Bitcoin took another step toward acceptability with the launch of futures trading at CME Group and Cboe Global.
Meanwhile, EU lawmakers and representatives of the member states agreed on a revision of the bloc’s anti-money laundering rules, extending the framework to companies that “are in charge of holding, storing and transferring virtual currencies,” according to a statement from the European Commission. Furthermore, these companies “will have to identify their customers and report any suspicious activity.”
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