Crypto Policy News Roundup March 4, 2022

Lugano, Switzerland makes BTC & Tether legal tender!!!

In a pilot scheme announced on 3 March 2022, the Swiss city of Lugano will partner with Tether to allow its citizens and business to use Bitcoin and some stablecoins to pay for goods and services and to pay their parking fines and taxes.

Mayor of Lugano said: “In recent years, the city has already implemented blockchain-based solutions including the MyLugano app and its LVGA Points payment token, the Lugano digital franc and the 3Achain blockchain infrastructure. We strongly believe in this technology, the potential to scale the technology, – and our integrated collaboration with Tether – will build a better and more open, transparent and smart city.”

See more here!

Is this Europe’s El Salvador?

State by State Crypto Bills

From Alabama to Wyoming, check out the cryptocurrency-related legislative proposals of each US State as helpfully compiled by the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Meanwhile, this law firm has a series of articles on the impact of crypto and blockchain on US data protection laws.

ECB & Digital Euro

We reported on the announcement of the Eurogroup on the Digital Euro Project. See the European Central Bank’s presentation to the Eurogroup on 25 February 2022.

Brazil Crypto Law

We previously reported that on 23 February 2022 a committee of the Brazilian Senate has unanimously approved legislation proposing that the Central Bank of Brazil and Brazil’s tax office regulate crypto assets, which will now go to the houses of Congress.

The proposed law will regulate companies that offer crypto services, such as redeeming crypto for fiat. Interestingly the draft law has tax incentives for green crypto projects which use renewable energy. See our article on energy-efficient and environmentally friendly cryptocurrencies and our article on Hedera Hashgraph being the most energy efficient DLT.

Israel CBDC – Digital Shekel

Since the Bank of Israel announced its central bank digital currency (CBDC), the ‘digital Shekel’, trials in January 2002, rapid progress appears to have been made on the CBDC with the Bank of Israel announcing on 2 March 2022 that the digital Shekel is “. . . not expected to lead to a significant erosion in the banking system’s business results . . . or its ability to provide credit and fulfill its classic functions in a modern economy.”

However, as with all such CBDC trials, the Bank of Israel was keen to emphasize that it hasn’t yet decided whether it will issue a CBDC; we leave it to you to decide whether the amount of time and energy central banks are spending on CBDC trials are purely for the fun of it!

Cambridge Digital Assets Programme

On 1 March 2022, Cambridge University announced a two year collaboration with the Bank for International Settlements, the International Monetary Fund, Goldman Sachs and a number of other high profile businesses and institutions to examine the digitalization of assets and value transfer systems with a focus on the climate, financial market infrastructures, and ’emergent money systems’ such as CBDCs. See more on the research proposals here.

UK FCA Crypto Advertising

We previously reported on UK government proposals on crypto advertising:

UK Publishes Plans to Regulate Crypto Ads

Having initially launched a consultation in January 2022, now the UK financial services regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has issued a revised consultation paper on the strengthening of financial promotion rules for high risk investments, including cryptoassets. Responses can be made until 23 March 2022.

Singapore & UK Digitial Trade Deal

We previously reported on the digital partnership between the EU and Singapore. On 25 February 2022 the UK and Singaporian governments announced their Digital Economy Agreement in which they intend to cooperate on digital trade, including on fintech, regtech and artificial intelligence.

ICMA response on DLT Pilot Regime

We previously reported on the EU’s distributed ledger technology pilot regime. Now the International Capital Market Association (a self-regulatory organization and trade association for participants in the capital markets) has published its response to the EU’s securities regulator’s (ESMA) call for evidence on the DLT pilot regime.

Daml 2.0!

On 2 March 2022, software company Digital Asset, announced the launch of Daml 2.0 which is designed to enhance multi-party applications of distributed ledger technology.