European Union’s Approach to Crypto-Assets and Distributed Ledger Technologies

Abstract

Goal – to analyse the different and comprehensive aspects of the European Union’s approach to distributed ledger technologies and crypto-assets with a teleological interpretation then finally foresee what kind of policy is going to be adopted by the European Union regarding distributed ledgers. Research metodology – the article includes an analysis of the current and upcoming legal acts and regulations of the European Union regarding distributed ledger technologies and crypto-assets. A multi-disciplinary approach is adapted to understand the financial and technological reasons of European Union’s policy. Score/results – many regulations and directives have been legislated by the European Union and more regulations are in the final phase of the legislation process. Since the global hubs of the distributed ledgers (especially the United States and the Republic of China) have put negative pressures on the crypto-assets and their underlying technologies, the European Union is a candidate to be a new global hub with its ongoing technology-agnostic approach. Originality/value – the effort for the harmonization between a range of different regulatory areas such as anti-money laundering regulations, public financial regulations and the legal infrastructure for pilot regimes regarding distributed ledger technologies and crypto-assets will bring a new impulse to the promoting innovation in a politically and financially safe zone of the European Union.