Having served as Latvia’s prime minister and finance minister and as a member of the European Parliament in 2004–2009, Dombrovskis now seeks reappointment as the executive vice president of the European Commission.
The European Union’s finance commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis has pledged to propose new rules to regulate cryptocurrencies such as Facebook’s Libra.
If reappointed, he would be tasked with a brief labelled «An Economy that Works for People» and continue to be responsible for the Commission’s financial services portfolio and its work to “deepen Europe’s economic and monetary union”, as president-elect Ursula von der Leyen outlined.
As Reuters reports, speaking before EU lawmakers on Oct. 8, Dombrovskis stated:
“Europe needs a common approach on crypto-assets such as Libra. I intend to propose new legislation on this.”
Dombrovskis’s role
In addition to underscoring the need for new cryptocurrency-specific legislation in Europe, Dombrovskis spoke of the EU’s need to tackle “unfair competition, cybersecurity, and threats to financial stability.”
EU finance ministers are hostile to Libra
On Oct. 7, Cointelegraph reported that Germany’s finance minister Olaf Scholz has stated that he is “very, very skeptical” of Facebook’s Libra project.
The social media titan’s proposed stablecoin has also received a frosty response from French finance minister Bruno Le Maire, who has gone so far as to say that Libra should not be authorized on European soil as it would imperil the monetary sovereignty of states.
ESMA Wants to Create ‘Sound Legal Framework’ for Cryptocurrencies in 2020
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) plans to push for more regulation around cryptocurrencies and related products as part of its 2020 focus.ESMA published its 2020-2022 priorities list Thursday, noting that EU capital markets are facing new risks from digitalization. The organization wants market participants to acknowledge and prepare for these apparent risks.
«The dangers of cyberthreats to the financial system as a whole and a sound legal framework for crypto-assets are increasingly becoming areas of focus for ESMA together with the other ESAs, the ESRB, the ECB and the European Commission,» the document reads.
ESMA has been grappling with the question of how to regulate cryptocurrencies and securities in the space for years, developing rules for initial coin offerings and derivatives around the space.
Deloitte Approves Gemini Crypto Exchange in High-Level Security Evaluation
U.S.-based crypto exchange and custodian Gemini has finished a SOC 2 Type 2 evaluation, proving the operation’s security.
“The Type 2 is the highest level of security compliance that any organization can demonstrate”, Gemini’s head of risk, Gemini Yusuf Hussain, told Cointelegraph in an interview about the Jan. 23 announcement.
Compliance focus
In preparation for its SOC 2 Type 2 evaluation, Gemini achieved its SOC 2 Type 1 inspection in 2019, completed by auditing giant Deloitte. The accounting behemoth also completed Gemini’s SOC 2 Type 2 inspection, Hussain mentioned.
A regulatory-focused company, Gemini places a high level of importance on compliance and security with the intent of garnering customer trust, Hussain explained.
Indeed, Gemini released an advertisement campaign a year ago, in which one of several slogans to appear on buses and placards was “Crypto needs rules.”
Noting the importance of protection, Gemini’s head of risk said, “Doing security wrong in this industry will result in direct loss of customer funds.”
Broad evaluation
The SOC 2 Type 2 exam includes Gemini’s trading and investing platform, as well as its custody services, Hussain said. “We’re the only crypto exchange and custodian to demonstrate this level of security compliance of getting a SOC 2 Type 2”, he pointed out.
Additionally, Gemini has plans to undergo a SOC 2 Type 2 evaluation every year going forward, according to a statement Gemini provided to Cointelegraph.
Earlier this month, Gemini launched Nakamoto, Ltd., an insurance company for its crypto custody service.
