Bitcoin will now be treated as a currency in the EU and Deloitte thinks it’s too soon to regulate digital currencies. Here are the cryptocurrency highlights of week 43:
- Bitcoin might be classed as a commodity in the United States, but in Europe the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that the digital currency should be treated as a regular currency for tax purposes. The ruling means that Bitcoin will be exempt from value-added taxes (VAT) throughout the entire European Union. The ruling provides a big boost for Bitcoin in the region, which was previously seen as a commodity by some countries such as Sweden and Germany.
- Following the United Kingdom and Canada, self-governing island Jersey (one of the Channel Islands) is said to be introducing “light touch” regulation for digital currencies soon. The goal of “light touch” regulation is minimize actions that might stifle innovation. It also means that Jersey will be entering the race for becoming the “Bitcoin capital of the world”.
- Big Four accounting firm Deloitte also provided some support this week for governments considering similar regulation. In a report called “Bitcoin at the crossroads” Deloitte states that it is “too soon” to regulate the digital currency, and covers “three reasons why global policy makers and regulators may want to consider giving Bitcoin more time to develop”. The reasons mentioned consider how other historic key innovations like planes, phones and even the internet also had more time to develop before being regulated, while also noting that Bitcoin’s most valuable and important uses may not even have been invented yet.
- China might also change its stance on Bitcoin again, as the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) was found to have recently posted an article by the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, the People’s Daily, that stated that Bitcoin’s “revolutionary changes” can no longer be ignored and that “the new technology has led to the expansion of a distributed payment and settlement mechanism, which will innovate financial transactions”. The CAC itself did not provide a comment to the matter, but it does show a change in attitude towards the digital currency.
- The price of Bitcoin continued to rally this week following the ECJ court ruling, increasing by almost 3 percent to a current rate of roughly $279 per BTC. Ethereum’s continuous free fall has also came to an end, as the price of one ETH increased by more than five percent to about 57 cents.
