Hello and welcome to this week's edition of Overbit news. In this week's edition, we look at the French government's quest for a single agency to oversee cryptocurrency across the EU. The plan would result in digital currency regulations that are consistent across the EU. The French government has recommended that the European Securities and Markets Authority, or ESMA, oversee digital currency activity throughout the European Union.
If passed, this would create a single authority over the crypto industry across the EU, as proposed by the French securities regulator, Autorite des Marches Financiers, or AMF, and would provide uniform regulations across the union through ESMA.
According to the AMF's proposal: "Likewise, granting ESMA the power of direct supervision of public offers of crypto-assets in the EU (scrutiny of white papers) and of crypto-asset service providers would create obvious economies of scale for all national supervisors and concentrate expertise in an efficient way, for the common European benefit."
Last year, recommendations for an EU-wide regulatory framework for digital currencies were proposed. ESMA is a financial regulatory agency based in Paris that works to strengthen investor protection in the EU, improve the functioning of financial markets, and foster member-state collaboration.
The EU's securities regulator has issued a warning about the hazards of 'non-regulated' cryptocurrencies. If the AMF's proposal is approved, it will seek to build on ESMA's experience in regulating digital currency and give legal stability for digital currency enterprises operating throughout the EU.
Regulating digital currencies has become a significant topic of debate among governments all over the world. On Monday, the US Treasury Secretary met with the President's Working Group on Financial Markets, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to examine stablecoin regulation.
Today's piece of news to close out Overbit News comes from the Ethereum arena, where one of its eight cofounders has publicly come out on leaving the cryptocurrency industry.
The revelation, reported initially by Bloomberg, comes on the heels of a massive bitcoin, ethereum, and cryptocurrency price rise that has pushed the whole crypto market to well over $1 trillion.
Di Iorio, who helped to launch the development of ethereum in 2013 and was named a borderline billionaire by Forbes in 2018, said he doesn't "feel necessarily safe in this space" and warned that "a lot of times [cryptocurrency] is not... what the world needs."
Meanwhile, he told Coindesk that his decision to leave the crypto space was "a good 20%" due to concerns about his personal safety. Since 2017, Di Iorio has been accompanied by a security team, which means that someone is always travelling with him or meeting him wherever he goes.
"[Crypto is] really a small percentage of what the world needs," Di Iorio told Bloomberg, adding that he wants to "divert from being a crypto guy to being a guy tackling complex problems." I'll use crypto when it's necessary, but that's not always the case."
According to reports, Di Iorio plans to sell his company Decentral, a Toronto-based innovation hub and software developer, in the coming year to establish a philanthropic foundation. He's also said to be involved in a zero-emission vehicle company and to be consulting for Paraguay congressman and bitcoin enthusiast Carlos Rejala.
As cryptocurrency enthusiasts, we believe it's always important to listen to and share narratives like Di Iorio's, which provide more nuance to the industry and overall contribute to its growth.
Thanks as always for reading Overbit News - See you next week.