Cyprus government officials have presented a draft of a cryptocurrency bill in the capital Nicosia. Simultaneously, the EU is working on a mutual legal framework for all of its territory. Interestingly enough, Cyprus scored high in the European Innovation Scoreboard, only coming second to Stockholm, Sweden.
#Cyprus drafts legislation tailored to regulate #crypto assets. https://t.co/8saJBmjBkeA Welcoming Approach by the Local Government— Bitcoin News (@BTCTN) May 20, 2022
‘Cyprus welcomes the use of digital and crypto assets, but we still need to be very careful and respect not only the regulations currently in place but also the absence of regulations’, – says Deputy Minister for Research, Innovation and Digital Policy Kyriacos Kokkinos. The Minister also finds it’s not easy to levitate between crypto regulations and countries that have no regulation on crypto at all.
Cyprus already has an example of neighboring Malta – the small country invited a lot of cryptocurrency and blockchain companies, but the freedom also increased scrutiny as well as criminal cases. Moreover, Cyprus is still contemplating whether they should pass their national crypto bill before the EU finishes the legal framework that has been in the works.
Kyriacos Kokkinos explains the situation: ‘We have to be careful of the frameworks of the European Union since we are a member state’. However, it looks like the small country really wants to be at the forefront of innovative technology. That being said, it wouldn’t be a big surprise to see the Cyprus crypto bill passed before the EU crypto regulations kick in.