Just-In: EU To Vote Over Crypto POW-Ban On Monday

The Bill allowing European Parliament to ban cryptocurrencies using the proof-of-work (PoW) mining, including Bitcoin (BTC) has made its way back into the draft. As per latest reports, the EU parliament will vote over it on Monday. Earlier, the bill was removed from the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) proposal facing backlash from the crypto community.

EU will vote on 2 POW-Ban bills

Patrick Hansen, Head of Strategy and Growth at Unstoppable Finance, dropped some important updates regarding the addition of the bill. He informed that there are two alternative bills that will be presented in the parliament. However, only one of them will make it to the regulation.

Crypto-assets shall be subject to minimum environmental sustainability standards with respect to their consensus mechanism used for validating transactions, before being issued, offered or admitted to trading in the Union, reads the draft

Crypto-assets that are issued, offered or admitted to trading in the Union before [please insert the date of entry into force of this Regulation] shall set up and maintain a phased rollout plan to ensure compliance with such requirements, in accordance with the conditions and criteria referred to in paragraph 3 draft added

4/ The vote will take place in the ECON committee of the European Parliament on Monday. The majority is 31 votes.

Currently, there is a super-thin majority against the POW-ban amendment and for the one of @DrStefanBerger, but it is not guaranteed that it holds.

— Patrick Hansen (@paddi_hansen) March 12, 2022

Member of Parliament for Paris confirmed the voting over the bill.

(1/9) MiCa regulation will be voted on next Monday. As it stands, it definitively condemns the future of crypto-assets in Europe. By banning Bitcoin and Ether, by complicating the use of NFT and DeFi, the European Parliament is mortgaging our monetary and financial sovereignty.

— Pierre PERSON (@Pierr_Person) March 11, 2022

Will the bill be adopted by the EU?

Patrick Hansen has suggested that since it is a last-minute addition to the bill, the members can vote in its favor. However, he also expects that it will be dropped in the future in the upcoming trilogue negotiations.

8/ But this is uncertain & you never know what comes out of the negotiations, esp. given the fast-changing macro-environment.

No one expected it to pass in the EU Parliament either.

The risk of this insane proposition going through is higher than ever. https://t.co/EsfE2hvyGr

— Patrick Hansen (@paddi_hansen) March 12, 2022

This move has come amid the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. E.U with the U.S and other countries have imposed financial sanctions against Russia. It is being promoted that Russia can use Cryptocurrency to evade these sanctions. Meanwhile, voices to regularise sanctions over digital assets use by Russia have also made it the headlines.