Dutch government not funding cryptocurrencly regulation
The Ministry of Finance is not funding cryptocurrency regulation and supervision. The Ministry has denied repeated requests from the Authority for Financial Markets (AFM) for extra funding and has even limited the contributions the regulator can ask from the sector, Financieele Dagblad reports based on documents received from the Ministry through the Open Government Act.
The AFM needs to increase its supervision of the cryptocurrency market in order to adhere to new European legislation on the sector, MiCA, which takes effect at the end of this year. The regulator has repeatedly asked the Ministry to fund this extra supervision, but the appeals have fallen on deaf ears, according to FD.
The Ministry called a government contribution to cryptocurrency supervision “politically unfeasible,” according to the documents in FD’s possession. The government seems to be much less concerned about cryptocurrency fraud than the AFM itself.
The regulator had outlined three levels of supervision for the cryptocurrency market: “basic, tightened, and minimal.” It said that the “minimal” option would not be enough to adhere to MiCA. Yet that is the option the government chose.
“Given the risks in the crypto sector,” the Ministry told the AFM, according to FD, “we advise continuing with the minimal scenario.”
The AFM would not comment on the lack of government funding to FD. It did say that it would focus its efforts on the issues that could do the most harm to consumers, investors, and market parties.
The Ministry told FD that it made capacity decisions in consultation with the AFM.
