At the European Parliament, the suggestion of rapporteur Ashley Fox (ECR, UK) to regulate initial coin offerings through the proposed regulation aiming to facilitate crowdfunding received a mixed welcome at the committee on economic and monetary affairs (ECON) on Wednesday 29 August.
In his report, he proposed to regulate certain initial coin offerings (ICO), in other words raising funds in crypto-currency (see EUROPE 12079). Excluded from the scope of application of the regulation, on the other hand, would be private investments, ICOs raising more than €8 million or those not using a counterparty.
The suggestion is no trivial thing, as the Commission has so far reserved judgment on the question of virtual currencies and decided not to include it in its initial proposal (see EUROPE 11977).
Reservations were not long in being tabled. “I feel personally that it is too soon to move forward on this subject at European level and I think that this text is not necessarily the right tool to work on the issue”, said Anne Sander (EPP, France).
On the opposite corner, the S&D group said that it was largely in favour, subject to detailed discussions on the matter, whilst the other groups have yet to take position.
Other stumbling blocks will no doubt include his proposal to reinforce the role of the national competent authorities on accreditation and supervision – which automatically awakened concerns among the Socialists and Democrats – or to authorise certain accredited crowdfunding service-providers of third countries to offer their services throughout the EU.
It is worth noting that Fox's proposal to increase the threshold to be complied with for crowdfunding offers to €8 million, which the Commission had proposed to limit at €1 million, received broad support, particularly from the EPP and S&D groups.
The rapporteur is aiming for a broad and rapid agreement, with a committee vote scheduled for 5 November. In the meantime, and to try to win over colleagues still harbouring misgivings over ICO, Fox has invited them to a round table on the subject, to be chaired by himself, on Tuesday 4 September. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)